Quincy Township (part 5 of 74)

With the winiling up of the aft'airs of the sources of revenue upon which the town did town corporation, preparatory to its becoming a then and the coming city must rely; as also city, reports were ordered and made to the the proportionate degree of expenditure that trustees, covering its past year's business and shonld be provided for. These receipts and expresent financial condition. These reports were penses, as will be seen, graded at the time very made by the treasurer and clerk of the final much as now, though it will be noted that in the meetings of Ajiril 20 and 21, 1840. That of the above statements two costly and necessai-y factreasurer, p]noch Conyers, who was afterward tors in a city's expenditures (pauper and police three times made mayor of the city (dying accounts) do not appear. And to these may be while in office in 1849) showed that he had dur- added the otlici- now expenses of a growing ing the past twelve months, received $6,483.90. city, such as light and water. and paid out .+6,137.76, leaving a balance in his The first election for city officers, held on the liands of $364.14. This sum, which was all in 20th of xVpril, was important and exciting. Becounty orders, lie was directed to pay over to side the impoi'tance of the offices to be filled and the treasurer of the incoming administration, the patronage I'oiniected therewitli. this was the This at the proper time was done, and the abiiAc first occasion when the relative strength of amount was tlie "jjin money" with which the political parlies in (^tuiiicy was definitely deteryoung city started upon its career, before taxes, mined, allliongh a [)arlial test had been made licenses and the nsual sources of revenue could at the election for magistrates in the preceding commence biinging funds into the city treasury, year. Heretofore at all the elections any resi- A detailed fiscal statement was jirepared by the dent of the county, who was a cpialified voter, clerk, I. O. Woodruff, who was one of the most could riist his vote at whatever precinct of the accurate of clei-iciil men. and who then and couiily lie cliosi'. The voting was then, and since in such positions provcil himself to be of coiitinnrd iinlil 1S4S, vi\ii voce. Party lines peculiar public valnc This report, agreeing now bccnnic a( (incc i-losely drawn. Excellent with that of the I rcasurer, is as follows: nomin;itions Avere nuide by both parties. The PTTT'TT'TPT'-^ whigs selectecl as their candidate for mayor, ,, , I '. ^ '' ' , ,,-^ -, , Klienezer Moore, a much respected man, long

The contest was earnest, but good-natured. Everybody engaged in it. Everybody knew everybody. There was a hirge proportion of active, jolly young men here then, and many of the most intimate friends found themselves fighting each other.

Pun, newspaper squibs and lampoons were the order of the day. One young man, who had been for many pears past drawing upon other banks than that of Helicon, reaj^ed quite a success as a poetic satirist, a vocation which he has long since abandoned. Perhaps his two years association in classic Europe, away from the "root of all evil," may tend to rekindle some portion of his former juvenile fire.

A not bad hit and repartee passed between two friends at the jioUs. Gen. Leech, as all who knew him will remember, was a stiff, awkward, ungainly man, walking as though he had no joints. Said a whig, pointing to Leech, "Look at that movement, do you call that a gait or a pair of bars.' lie can't run." "You'll find," retorted his democratic friend, "by the time the i^olls close that its a flight of steps. ' '

But it did not so prove. Moore was elected by 43 majority, and the wdiigs secured all of the aldei'men except Asbury in the first ward, who fell three votes short of success. All of these men then elected, the first of our city fathers, now dead, and of all the men who served as trustees during the six years of the town existence, only one, Robert Tillson, is (1886) now living.

As it may be supposed, there was now a busy time and much work before the authorities of the young city. For the first month or two the council meetings were frequent. Organization was made on the 23rd of April, when the six elected aldermen were by lot divided into two classes - Osborn, Jansen and Ralston drawing into the first class, to hold for one year, and Jones. Williams and Wood to the second class, whose term continued for two years. Later in the season - in October - Alderman Jones, of the First ward, resigned. An election was ordered to be held in November to fill the vacancy, but when the day came around the judges of the election forgot all about it, and another election Avas held on December 21st. when Charles McDonald was chosen. At the second and succeeding meetings the corps of officers allowed under the charter and necessary for the complete organization of the city government were chosen. Then, under the first city charter, only the mayor and alderman were elected by a popular vote, all other

S. P. Church was appointed clerk, with a salary of $200 and his bond fixed at $1,000. Andrew Johnston, treasurer, with a required bond of $4,000: Jacob Gniell, marshal and collector, with a bond of $200 for the first and $1,000 for the latter office; I. 0. Woodruff, assessor; John R. Randolph, attorney; George Wood, sexton; J. D. Morgan, fire warden; Enoch Conyers, overseer of the poor, and Wm. King, Harrison Dills and John Odell, street supervisors.

These men completed and con.stituted the first year's city government, and, so being - the first city fathers - their names are entitled to be given and to receive such amount of immortality as their own merits and this mention may secure.

The council meetings were held at the courthouse until about the fii\st of Nevember, and after that time at the mayor's office. The town ordinances were continued until the 30th of May, when a system of city ordinances was adopted. A troublesome question of authority came up almost at the very first, which created some public embarrassment and aroused considerable feeling. Gov. Carlin, an honest but narrows-minded man, of strong partisan proclivities, refused to commission Mayor Moore as a justice of the peace, which he became under the charter by virtue of his election as nuiyor, and the case at once assumed a political hue. The council took the matter up; demanded of the governor his reasons; passed some pretty sharp resolutions in regard to his conduct : obtained decided legal opinions ; commenced legal movements and for some months there seemed to be a small civil war on paper between the city and the state, or rather between the city council and the governor. It was finally settled in favor of the mayor.

The ordinances, proceedings and advertisements of the council were ordered to be printed in the Whig for $75 per annum. The many petitions against the issuing of "grocery" or "dram shop" licenses, which had been l3efore the late town board and w'ere there dismissed for the reason that they did not represent a majority of the legal voters, early came up again before the city council and were once more dismissed for the same reason as before. The grading of Maine street from the public square to the river and the extension southward of the public landing, which then was a narrow piece of new made ground at the foot of Hampshire, were ordei'ed and contracted for in December, the landing to be extended with the earth taken from ilaine street. Also at the same time a emitrart was iiuule I'oi- the feucing of the piiblie square. All those imjji-ovements, theu commeueed, which met with much popular and some couucil opposition, were completed during the coming year.

The public school question, which had been here, as everywhere else in the west, a disjjuted issue between two conflicting ideas, received early and earnest attention from the people and the city authorities. The growth of this invaluable, inestimable interest against chilling and distrustful influences up to its present condition and strength is interesting. There was then a huge hostility to common schools, partly growing out of a sectional distrust of education, partly out of a feeling, which, to some extent, still e.xists, that public moneys should not be expended upon that which every one did not want, and that no one should be taxed to pay for what his neighbor thought to be needed and himself did not. This had to be met. At a l>ublic meeting held on the first of August, a call was made upon the city council to make an appropriation in behalf of a common school system. The council took the matter under advisement.

Dr. Ralston, one of the most excellent and exemplary men, both in public, and private life, that the city ever had, gave to this subject his special interest and attention, bringing the matter continually before the council, where, as with the public, his intelligence and integrity gave him more than an average influence. It was ordered in October, at his recommendation, that city public schools should be established ; that "the surplus revenue of the city, after paying ordinary and contingent exj)enses," should be devoted to that purpose, and that a consultation should be had with the township school trustees in regard to buying ground and the building of two school houses. Later, after these conferences were had, the council, in December, ordered the building oi' a school house in the old cemetery lot, where the courthouse now stands, and the purchase of a lot on block 30, where now is the Franklin school house. Prom th(>se ])lantings, which did not fully bear fruit until in the succeeding year, our present city school system has gi-nwn.

Tlu' liuilding id' a uiarl-;ct linuse. whirh had been pro])osed in the town board in the preceding spiing, was again In'ouglit foi'ward and a proposition made to the county authorities to sell a portion of the market lot for a sufficient sum to build or pai'tially build a market house on the remainder of the lot. This, however, laid over until the next year.

jjctwecn the city and count.y concerning the ownership and control of public property lying within the city limits, which for a full half century later was the cause of much bitter and senseless strife, fostered by local demagogues so long as the county vote largely prepondered over that of the city. This has recently been resolved and settled, and it is to be hoped forever.

This jealovis controversy delayed for many years much needed improvement, and to some extent also embarrassed for awhile the effective establishment of the public school system, before alluded to, which had been practically inaugurated during this year.

Mail facilities were not as yet what they shoukl have been, considering the size and growing business importance of the place. The tri-weekly mail from Springfield, was still the main medium through which was received eastern news. Another tri-weekly mail from St. Louis alternated with the above. No river mail had as yet been established, although it was 1)}^ private conveyance of newspapers on the dailj' arriving of steamers that the earliest special news from abroad was obtained. Navigation was long continued, and the river did not finally close until the 18th of December. This will Ije remendiered as one of the longest known periods of open water in the Mississippi, which was surpassed by the yet longer continued navigation, free from ice, of the two following years, 1841-42, when the river remained open aU'winter.

This was notably an organizing period. JIany of the present permanent associations, and some temporary ones which served their purjiose, but have passed away, date theii' origin from this time.

A uu^dical society was formed in March, which, though its existence lapsed at times, was the germ of the present institution of that character. A theatre, under the management of "Joe Jetferson," had been established during the preceding winter, and was operated with a good share of success and credit for nearly two years. An argricultural society was in existence, but with a feeble life, and it Avas not until some fifteen years later that such an institution became successfully organized. There was also formed a historical society, composed of very cai)able nu'mliersliip, which promised well at first, and gathered a good deal of the then fresh, crude material of infant history for future use, but it has unfortunately been allowed to dwindle out of existence. An institution of this kind is an essential of measureless value, and shduld be (u-ganized as early as possible in every vonng growing conununity: since with each

The Presbyterian church, an offshoot, like most of the early religious societies, from the old Congregational, was organized at the courthouse on the 19th of January, and on the 31st of August the corner stone was laid of the brick church building on ]\Iaine street. Avhich they occupied for nearly forty years. Dr. David Nelson conducted the ceremonies. This, when finished, was the most imposing church structure in the city. The Unitarian was foi-med about this time, under the pastorship of the Rev. (ieorge I\Ioore, a most excellently educated and popular clergyman. This denomination, then small, now perhaps the wealthiest in the city, built a small frame church on the north side of Maine street, between Third and Fourth from which they moved a few years later to the corner of Jersey and Sixth, and thence to their present handsome home on ]\laine street between Sixth and Seventh.

This was a memorable, almost unprecedented year of party strife and excitement. Since 1828 no such wild wave of partisan enthusiasm had swept over the land, so sharply changing exi.sting political conditions. As in 1826, this great upheaval occurred most conspicuously in the west, and its great coming was but partially foreshadowed by the summer state contests. Still the evident tendency of public sentiment shown in the August elections, gave increased strength and certainty to the almost unanimous national success of the whigs in the following November.

At the state election in August, J. II. Ralston to the senate. Wm. Laughlin and I. C. Humphreys to the house, and Thomas Jasper as sheriff, were elected by the democrats, over Archibald Williams. N. Bushnell and R. "W. Starr, and Wm. II. Tandy (wliigs) by majorities ranging from 20 to 100. These figures were more than reversed three months later, when the whigs carried the comity by 265 and the city by 72 majority. The abolition party then first appeared as a factor in politics, poling 42 votes.

The August election was influenced and probabh^ determined by the large Iri.sh vote, which work upon the railroad had bi-ought into the county. At this election was witnessed the first, and indeed the only political riot that has ever occurred in Quincy. The railroad hands took entire possession of the polls and the mob had to be di.spersed by the calling out of the militia. Beyond there being many knock downs, bruises and bad scars, no great injury resulted, though some men of political prominence then and since made most astonishing runs at the point of the bayonet, or were carefully placed under militarv guard. The warfare of that day was long a subject of amusement.

A special session of the legislature was called in November. Why or what for it was difficult to know, since the session lasted but .sixteen d.iys and adjourned without passing any bills.

The gradual disappearance of some of the earlier species of game was noted by a bear being killed (probably the last one in the county) near Lima Lake, by Wilson Land and Swartout, which weighed three hundred pounds.

Progress Of Schools

POLITICAL. CUTTING A CANAL FROM WOOD SLOUGH TO RIVER. FERRY RATES ESTABLISHED. QUEER ORIGIN OF THE FIRST CITY FIRST ENGRAVED BONDS. THE FIRST GERMAN MILITARY' COMPANY. A DAILY LINE OF STEAMBOATS. QUINCY' HER.A.LD. PROGRESS OF SCHOOLS.

At the session of 1840-41 a new legislative apportionment was made which gave Adams county one senator and five representatives. No elections, however, was held under this law until the summer of 1842. The judiciary system of the state, as organized under the constitution of 1818 and which had been legislatively changed in 1824, 1827, 1829 and 1835, was now radically recognized at this session by legislating out of office all the circuit judges and creating five supreme court justices, who. with the four life office judges, holding office under the constitution of 1813. should constitute a supreme court and each of them also required to perform circuit court duty. This act dismissed from the bench Judge Peter Lott. of this circuit, and his place was filled by the appointment of Stephen A. Douglas. Judge Douglas, who had previously presided in Jacksonville, became now a resident of Quincy. Here he lived, representing the district afterward three times in congress, until after his election to the U. S. senate, when he removed to Chicago some eight or ten years later.

The congressional election in August resulted in the success of the whig ticket, John T. Stuai-t having been rechoseu to congress over J. IT. Ralston, carrying the county by a majority of 136 in a total vote of 2,978. Ebenezer Moore was again elected mayor at the city elec- tion ill April over Daniel Atliinson and Robert Evans. J. 11. Ralston and John Abbe were elected as aldermen and Samuel P. Church was reappointed clerk. In August of this year died Alderman R. R. Williams, one of the pioneer men who had been almost constantly connected with the town and city councils. He had an excellent professional standing as a lawyer and was eqiuilly regarded as an exemplary and useful citizen. His place in the Ijoard wa.s tilled by the election of H. V. Sullivan.

There had long been an apprehension that the steady encroachment of the tow-head bar might ultiiiialcly dcsli'oy the public landing, and to ii\'crt this (hinyci' the city appropriated !li2,000. in conned ion with a pulilic subscription, for the purimsc of culling a canal from the river into Wootl sl(iui;h so as tti bring a constant eurient into the bay. This work was conmienced in February and soon comi)leted. Its value, however, was doubtful.

The receipts into the treasni-y up t<i the 1st of January, 1841, being the first eight months of the city government, were reported as amounting to -'(!2,762.25. The salary of the nuiyor for the year ending April. 1841, Avas fixed at .$250. The market house, so long a subject of controversy, was built after much trouble and delay in deciding upon the plan, at the corner of Hampshire and Third streets. Rates for the ferry, then owned by Carlin & Rogers, Avere established and a license fee of .$60 imposed. The fencing of the i>ul:ilic square was completed.

A novel excitement came up earl.v during the year Avhich aroused a good deal of feeling at the time and led to the selection of the singular design for the fii'st city seal. John Wood had, at his own expense, with the concurrence of the council, transplanted to the center of the square a handsome elm tree about a foot in diameter. There had been an oi^position to the enclosing of the public square and its adornment with shrubbery, which finally engendered some political bitterness. On the night of May 6th some graceless scamps girdled and thus killed the tree. In the next issue of the Argus, the democratic paper of the place, appeared a irough cut pui'portiug to represent Mr. Wood resting upon his cane and monimfully gazing at the dead tree. The city coiuicil offered a reward of .$100 for the detection of the rogues. They were soon discovered, but found to be not worth the troiible of punishing.

At their meeting on June 26th the council ordered that "the elm tree and flagstaff iipon the piiblic sciuare. as represented in the Argus some time since, be adopted as the device of a seal for the city." This representation of a man .standing alongside a dead tree was used as the "Quiney City seal" for some years, until a later council, composed of some of those whose wrong teachings were the indirect cause of this former vandalism, and who felt sensitive about it, changed it to the present more appropriate and tasteful design.

The fiscal statement of the city, made April 27th, 1841, is worthy of reference as showing its financial condition during the first year of its existence. Summarized it is as follows: It will be noticed that a considerable portion of the ex])enditure was upon the unsettled indebtedness of the town of Quincy, which had become the heritage of the city :

The cost of the fire department was .$214.24; street supervisors' expenditures, .$264.11; paupers, $335.79 ; surveying, platting, etc., $298.12 ; expense, salaries, etc., $1,059.46 ; the remainder, some $22 or $23, being expended on streets, mainly the completion of Hampshire and the conuuencement of work on ilaine to Front, also the grading of Front and the public square.

The city ordinances which, like those of the t(i-\vn, had heretofore only seen the light occasionally through publication in the weekly pal)ers, were now revised and issued in pamphlet foiin for the first time. A city poorhouse was also rented at the rate of $100 per annum, the pauper demands upon the young city having become then - as they ever since have increased to be - a most expensive factor. A city physician was employed. Dr. Eells was the first regular city physician, although Dr. Ralston had informally, thi'ough his position in the council, acted as such for a few months before. A question brought out the statement from the coxinty clerk that the cost and expenses on the courthouse, commenced in 1836 and finished in 1836, and burned in 1875, amounted to $21,800, and those on the "jail to $13,681.

There was a slight dissatisfaction in 1825 when the county seat was established at Quiney, because it had not been placed in the geographical centre of the county as was done in many other counties of the state. Ten years later, when the county vote greatly outnumbered that of the town, being nearly two to one, this i.ssue was raised and it was emphatically decided in favor of retaining the county seat at Quiney. The dissatisfaction still smoiUdered, however, and resulted in the passage of a law, which was approved January ID, 1841, ordering an election to be held in Adams county on the question of removing the county seat from Quiney to Columbus. A most bitter sectional and personal conflict ensued. It was fostered by personal and political interests. The fierceness of the antagonism raised by this strife can scarcely be realized now.

State and county officials were to be chosen and a vote taken on the proposition for a convention to revise the state constitution, or to make a new one. This project was warmly supported in Quiney for the reason that some thought it pointed a way out of the county difficulties (which it did six years later) and was carried by a majority of 625 in the whole county, out of a total vote of 2,680. It failed in adoption by the state, however, on account of conditions with which it was burdened, and it was not until five yeai's later that the general desire to change the original constitution of 1818 was pres.sed to a successful result.

The democratic candidate for governor, A. W. Snyder, of St. Clair county, died shortly after his nomination, and Judge Thomas Ford, a former resident of Quiney, was selected in his stead. Against him the whigs put up Joseph Duncan, who had been elected governor in 1834 and had served as a member of congress for several years earlier. There was also in the field an abolition state ticket. The whigs nominated for the legislature 0. H. Browning. A. Jonas, R. P. Starr, Peter B. Garrett and Alex Fruit, all of whom, with the exception of Fruit, were elected by majorities ranging from 150 to 900, the feeling in regard to the county seat matter making this partly personal and causing a great latitude in the vote, although really none of the candidates on either side were publicly supported with reference to this issue. The democratic nominations were A. Wheat, Wm. Laughlin, Jacob Smith, J. Ilendi'ickson and W. S.ympson. Of these Mr. Wheat only was chosen. The whigs elected their full county ticket, W. II. Tandy as sheriff, over Thos. Jasper, and Jonas (irubb as governor, over J. J. Jones. Duncan, for governor, cai-ried the county over Ford by a majority of 155 in a vote of

2,1)05, the abolition ticket receiving 75 votes. This was the last time up to this date (1886) that the county has given anything but a democratic majority on the state or presidential ticket.

The county seat (juestion, which was still hanging unsettled in the courts, was a constant subject of irritating discussion among' the people all through the year. A newspaper, the People's Organ, Avas started in Quiney, advocating the retention of the county seat here, and a paper was also published in Columbus, advocating the removal, yet the only distinct issue made at the polls on this question was in tiie election of Wm. Richards, who had been nominated for county commissioner as the Quiney candidate, by 180 majority over J. Turner, who represented the Columbus interest. Singularly enough, so far as the legislative candidates were concerned, although they were known to have diverse and decided views in f-'-gard to this issue, it was tacitly kept quiet, although it undoubtedly affected the votes that Ai-ere cast for them.

This contest broke over the iron lines of party, split many personal friendships and shivered the popular power of not a few prominent men who became unfortunately misplaced in the struggle. Frequent meetings were held over the county and broad latitude of personal disputation was not uncommon. Newspapers were started especially devoted to this issue. Public and private crimination was frequent. It was an especially good time for the wags and satirists to shoot at their selected game. A hot controversy ensued over the validity of a bond of $75,000 given by the Columbus party to insure the erection of the necessary public buildings at that place.

On this (|uestion the two leading lawyers of the county dittered widely. Browning pronounced the bond defective. Williams, who then lived in the southeast part of the county, said that it was good, or it might be made so. After a six months' canvass the election came off on the 2(1 of August and out of a vote of 3.181 Columbus claimed to have succeeded by 91 majority.

The county commissioners recorded the result as above, auci Quiney at once api)ealed. The commissioners, although they had declared the residt of the election, did not, as the law required them to do, remove the offices to Columbus. A mandamus was applied for and Judge Douglas, who was then on the bench of the circuit coui't, oi'dered, on the 6th of September, a t'oiiipliiuiee by the I'oininissioner.s with the prescriptions of the law. The eonimissioners, however, who had eacli liis own individual as well as official opinion and interest in the matter, found an easy way "how to do it." Two of them. Eli Seehorn and Wm. Richards, favored Quincy as the county seat, while the thiid one. (ieorge Smith, was a (.'olumhus man. Consequeutly, at the several sessions of the board while Smith always attended. Seehorn and Richards only attended alternately and the eonse((uence was that at each meeting; there was a tie vote. The (piestion was thus worried along during the season until in the following year it assuiued a new shape which finally resulted in a temporarj^ division of the county.

The present valuable and prospering Quincy Library dates its continuous existence from this year. A similar institution had been created in 1837-38. based mainly on the voluntary contribution of liDoks those who saw fit to spare them. This plan proved too weak to endure, and within a year or two the enterprise was abandoned, or perhaps, might he said to have suspended, since the same parties who composed it- afterward united in foi-ming the present organization. The hooks, etc.. on hand wei'e returned so far as could he to the donors.

In March, 1841, the project was revived and an association made which was perfected in October by being incorporated under an old state law of 1823, relating to public libraries. It opened on the 18th of April with hut "a beggarly account of emjity" shelves, and in very unpretentious ipiarters. hut ]ty the close of the year it rejiorted an accumulation of 735 volumes, and these were very well selected for a fiiniidafion stock. Its subsequent growth. Ihdiiuh shiw, has he(Mi healthful and now in the fmiy-lhiid year of its existence it contains over T.dlHI well-chosen publications.

A course of winter lectures, under the management of the liljrary. twelve during each season, was commenced in December aud continued for many years. For the first few years the lectures were given by resident professional men and they constituted the special pleasant attraction of the winter during the period when, the river being closed, home resources had to he drawn upon for enjoyment and also added to the reveiuie of the association. There had been a small circulating library kept at the bookstore of W. I). Skillman for two or three years past.

Until this time the coiuicil meetings had been held either in the courthouse, or latterly, at the private office of the mayor or the clei'k. A room was now rented on the west side of the public square, near the corner of Maine street.

The work of macadamizing the public lauding irom Hampshire to Maine street was begun in November and finished in March, 1812. Hampshire street had already been macadamized from the public square to Front street aud Maiiu^ street had been partially c\it thi'ough the bluff.

A second military company, composed of Germans, the Yagers, made its appearance with a large organization, which continued for several years.

Two semi-weekly packets regularly ran from St. Louis to Keokuk on alternate days and tliere was a daily line of pai-kets between St. jjuuis and (Jalena. beside which two or three transient steamers j^iassecl each day on their way to (lalena and Dubucpie and occasionally to above those jioints.

The great mining industries in 1iie iioiiliwestern curner of the state and in southei-n Wisconsin, which shipped all their lead product by river, railroads not yet having come into existence, caused a great demand for .steaml)oat transportation by light draught boats on the upper Mississippi during the navigable season. There were then probably twice as many through steamboats plying on the upper Mississii)])i as then' ar<' at the present date. Eleven liundred ai'ri\als nf steamboats were reported for the year 1S41. which is prol)ably a nearly correct figure.

The Adams County ^Medical Society held its first annual meeting on the 12th of April. A colonization society, one of the many that had been formed throughout the country to encourage the emigration of blacks to Liberia, and as a partial foil to what was thought to be the injurious influence of the abolition societies, held a second meeting on the 1th of Jammry. The s"eiety did not long exist. The Quincy

Argus. sucL-essor to Bounty Lane Register, the oldest paper in the place, founded in 1835. suspended on the 19th of June, and on the 23d of September was reissued with a ehange of name, as the Quiney Herald, under which name it lias since been and is now published.

The foundation of our present admirable school sy.stem was laid during this year, not in 1842 as has been erroneously stated and supposed. It is a matter of regret that a complete history of the public schools of Quiney from their first inception has not been written. Such a record would be of exceeding interest now and to the future also be replete with value. It could delineate the difficulties that confronted these institutions at the very beginning and afterward, beset as they then were by an extensive and bitter pre.judiee. also utterly without moneyed means and having no corporate provision for their support. The free school system had not yet become a permanent public policy. Still less did it possess the facilities that it now happily en.^oys. A compilation of this character, which would depict with more or less minuteness the varying fortunes of the city schools throughout the pa.st forty-two years as the.y have been aft'ected by state and local legislations; by public opinion, by management, sometimes competent and faithful and sometimes careless, and the gradual growth to the present proportions might be prepared. But all this would have to be glecned from scattered fields, partly found in the brief proceedings of the coiuicil. but mainl.y from the records of the school board, which occasionally were scant, and the earlier portion of which were quite carelessly kept and sometimes yet more carele.ssly lost or destroyed, and also to a large -extent from the recollections of those who were then personally associated or interested. Of these all the members of the council and most of the prominent citizens who favored the cause of the schools are dead (1886).

The first teacher in the male department. Mr. Dayton, and the first also in the female department. Mrs. Webster, are still living (1883) and resident here.

Prior to this period and for six years later the authority over the schools lay legally in the hands of the school commissioner of the county and the trustees of the districts ad.joining and embracing the city, Quiney being made a separate school district in 1847. Fortunate it was that a thorough accord between these county officials and those of the city existed during this entire time, and while the nominal direction came from the school trustees, the actual support and influence came from the council, which appointed an annual visiting cunnuittee (which, however, had no real authority) and provided by appropriations, etc., for the school support. The initial .steps in these matters had been taken by the council in the previous year, but they had but little to go on. and were groping almost in the dark. The public, however, were widely awaking to the importance of the sub.ject and pressing it strongly forward. In these sketches can only be given a skeleton statement of the progress of this matter each year - just so much as it attaches to and becomes a part of the general current history of the city.

A proposition was passed by the council in July to rent the old Congregational church (God's Barn) on Fourth street, and the Methodist chui-ch on Vermont for school pui-poses. So far all was well, but it was found necessary to have the co-operation of the school authorities of the county and at a subsequent meeting in August a committee consisting of Dr. Ralston (whose special and earnest work in the cause entitle him to be called, if any one should, the father of our public schools) and Mr. Abbe were appointed to confer with the school trustees. An immediate conference was held and upon the report of this committee on the following week a resolution was passed by the council "that if the board of trustees would establish and maintain for one year from the 4th of November a system of common schools extensive enough to accommodate all the children of the city of Quiney. the city would appropriate for the rent of two rooms $165, payable (juarterly; also any sum not over .$300 to fit uj) such rooms: also for salary of teachers, $800, in semi-annual payments, and that it should be the policy of the city to appropriate from time to time what might be necessary to maintain these schools."

So inadequate, however, seemed the means and so much questioned was the authority for such action the part of both council and trustees that public sanction of their course was called for, and at a largely attended public meeting held at the courthouse on the 14th of September, where the whole matter was fully discussed, it was resolved that it was "prudence" and "justice" to establish a "permanent system of common schools immediately," and that the board of trustees for schools be instructed "to accept the propo.sition of the city council in which they projjose to hire suitable rooms and to appropriate $800 and with the funds now in their hands to immediately establish a permanent system of common schools in this city." At another meeting on the 18th the same resolutions, slightly varied, were again adopted.

Past And Present Of Adaims Cointv

Tlie boai'cl of si'liool trustees, of township 2 south. 9 west, were somewJiat sIoav to aet, lint on the 27th of Novemljer they accepted the pr-opo.eitions of the eouiicil and established three scliool districts, all north of Elaine street being the first, all south of Maine extending so as to include sections 10, 11 and 12 comprising the second, and all south of that, the third, the east line of the township (what is now Twentyfourth street) being the eastern boundary. The council was prepared to promptly act, and schools were ordered to be, and were opened (ui the 4th of December, one in the Methodist church "for large girls from all parts of the disti-ict." one in the basement of the Baptist (-hui'ch ""for small girls and boys from district No. 1." nuc in the Congregational church "for lai-ge boys" and one in the Saiford schoolroom on Fifth south of -Fei'sey "for small girls and boys of tlistrict No. 2, all children residing in (.^uincy between tive and t-wenty ycai's of age free, but others in the township to i>ay tuition fees unless remitted by the council." They weie all well crowded. The above gives, in brief, the action attending the founding of our pulilic schools and the manner of their management when opened in Decemliei-. They continued, as before stated, to be I'un in a s(u-1 of partnership between the city ami county school ofticials f(u- the following six years.

And Thompson Sent To Pexitenti.Vry For

NAVIGATION OPENS EARLY. PUBLIC SCHOOL TAX. ENOCH CONYERS. MAYOR. BUSINESS STATEMENT. MAIL FACILITIES IMPROVE. AGITATION OF SLAVERY QUESTION. BURR. WORK AND THOMPSON SENT TO PEXITENTI.VRY FOR .\I:riT'i'TlX(', XKGRmER from MIRROI-Rl. ABOi.rrii ixisTs diii lAXi/.i-; ri u.rniwi.i. v. dr. icioi.i.s Till': i-'i iKi':ii ;x \'ii-|-i; sTun ;i ; i,i-; ()\-er

Work Fever. Good Sleighing

During the very mild winter of 1 St 1-42 the jriver did 110I roiiiplctcly clnsc at (^nincy ami navigation ^\as [iracticablc througlnuit the entire seasiui. Open water - 01 "easy boating." as steamliiiat men Avere wont I0 tei'in it wlii'iiever the river w.is even with its banks antt free from ice obstruction - came now unusually early in the upper .Mississippi. Indexed, it may ])e said to liaxc come rather too early for the business interests of the place.

Twenty-nine steamboats. am<ing them se\-eral of th? great " XcAV Orleans boats," were registered as arrivals during the two weeks, incliuling March 21st and April 4th. This was an unpi-ecedented token of business activity at so early a period and resulted in the early shipment of a large pi'opoi'tiou of the packed provision and stored grain that had accumulated during the winter, making the after part of the season comparatively dull.

The cereal yield throughout this section and the west generally was above the average in i|uaiitity. so much so as to cause prices to grade very low. Wheat sold in July at from 37 to 40 cents per bushel and in September the price had fallen to 31 cents.

The public school system, which had been successfully inaugurated late in the preceding year, had worked well and lieen steadily growing in favor, yet the opposition to it was not as yet fully suppressed. The number of pupils, which w;is dail.v increasing, cannot be accurately given, but as an indication of their prosperity it may be stated that the leading and largest school, conducted by ]\Ir. Dayton, with two assistants, b.ad an average attendance of about l;")(i scholars, and the number of pupils at the other scliools was proportionately large. The city was still cramped in means for full support of th schools. A deficiency of $630.77 was reported at the end of the first year, and to partially meet this an appropriation of $300 Avas (U'dered by the council and a bond for $1,400 from which this $300 should be deducted was issued as a iirovision for the support of the schools to run over and be applied to the expenses in 1843.

At the same time steps were taken to obtain such an amendment to the city charter or additional legislation that would provide for a separate tax, to be independently assessed and applied solely to school suiijiort.

The movement in this direction lu'ought out an expressiiui of sentiment from the German population, which was then and had been for a few years past greatly on the increase - that tended as much as any one thing could, to put ilowii opposition to education and establish the pcrniauence of the school system.

.\n application was prepared, sanctioned by the city council and the school trustees, -for the assessment of a special tax for school purposes. A jietitiou for the legislature was gotten up and circulated among the (lermans in remonstrance against the above-named projiositicui and asking that (Jermans should be exempt from the imposition of a tax to support schools conducted in the English language. This evolced a public meeting of tlu^ (iermans. with Ceorge Sehultheis as chairman and Charles ^Maertz, secretarv, Avhich meeting resolved that naturalized

Germans were Americans and were fostered by, stood by and expected to sustain and be protected and pay for the same laws as native born citizens. This decided and proper position taken by the Germans stopped all deniagoguing in that direction and fixed the future of the public schools. One or two public protests were made against this meeting, but they ended in nothing and the parties soon would gladly have them forgotten. It was not. however, until two 01- three years later, when, through the passage of a law aiithorizing the levy of a tax of one-eighth of one per cent on the hundi'ed fiu" school uses, that the system assiimed an independent strength.

At the election in April the democrats elected all the city officers - Enoch Conyers as mayor, over II. Asbury. by 90 majority; and John B. Young, I. H. Holton and J. D. Morgan, aldei'- inen, over H. V. Sullivan, George Chapman and G. B. Dimock. Later in the year John Abbe resigned. C. Swartout was chosen to succeed him as alderman from the First ward. The new eoimcil at its first meeting changed all the city officials. I. 0. Woodruff succeeding S. P. Church as city clerk. Dr. J. B. Conyers was appointed city physician, with an annual salary of ifilOO - "he agreeing to give the same to the schools." The salary of the mayor was fixed at $250, he also to attend to the duties of street superintendent, and that of the clerk at $200. The citv was reported as owing, on the 1st of January. .$22,380.

On the 16th of April, by ordinance, a complete system of grades of streets throughout the city was established, embracing all from Broadway to State, and in past farther south, and from Front to Twelfth (then called Wood street). This was the first comprehensive plan of action in regard to city grades that had been adopted, and though slightly changed occasionally, since on almost every street has been adhered to.

A carefully compiled special census of Quincy, taken during this year, reports the population to have been 2,686. The other data secured at this time are of peculiar value for the reason that they indicate the business condition of the place more in detail than appears in any similar schedule of earlier date.

The report shows that the city then contained -lr64 frame, 138 brick and two stone buildings - the committee not seeing fit, perhaps being too proud, to make mention of the more numerous log houses ; there were also 20 dry goods, 19 groceries, 1 book, 1 hide and leather. 1 iron, 2 shoe, 2 milliner, 3 drug stores, 9 hotels. S boarding-houses, 9 churches (there were several societies -without a church building), 1 reading-room. 20 lawyers, 12 physicians, 1 dentist, 1 government and 3 private laud offices, 3 insurance offices or agencies. 2 commission houses, 6 pork houses, 2 bakeries, 2 bathhouses, 1 ropewalk. 1 tauyard, i brickyai-ds, 1 iron foundry, 1 market house, 3 lumber yards, 3 breweries, 1 woolen mill, 1 castor oil and 2 soap factories, 1 shingle mill, 2 water mills, 3 .steam flour and 2 steam sawmills, 2 hatters. 11 shoemakers, 4 watchmakers, 2 gunsmiths, 6 house and sign painters. 6 masons, 6 plasterers, 9 chair and cabinet, 12 carpenters, 10 wagon and coach, 12 blacksmiths, 4 saddle and harness, 3 barbers, 11 tailors, 7 butchers. 7 cooper shops, 2 printing offices.

There were two regular weekly newspapers, the Whig and the Herald, the latter also semiweekly, and during the summer and fall thei'e was issued a spicy paper, the People's Organ, advocating Quincy as the county seat or the division of the county.

The amount of provisions prepared was about the same as in the preceding year, 12,000 hogs being packed, and the milling business was also about the same ; the mills shipped away nearly 25,000 barrels of flour.

Mail facilities had improved. The two eastern semi-weekly stages now came iu as triweeklies on alternate days, making it practically a daily mail, although not always affording the earliest news. In addition to these there were two mails cai-ried north, one south and one west into Missouri.

The "hard times" that had commenced with the financial crash in 1836-37 caused by the partisan destruction of the United States bank and the suspension of mo.st of the other banks in the counti-y. continued as before, and. indeed, it was not until three or four years later that business here or anywhere in the country came to a condition of assured confidence and prosperity. The debtor class was very numerous and still struggling under the prostration of half a dozen years. Money was feai-fully scarce. State bank and Shawneetown bank paper, which had been the chief ciirrency of the state in times past, was now at a di.scount of from 36 to 40 cents and most all other bank circulation was proportionately discredited. Ecotiomy such as would seem niggardly during the past thirty years was universally practiced, and under these there came a slow but substantial increase of population and advance of prosperity, both in the city and county.

There was more than the usual amount of local public excitement throughout the year, growing out of the agitation of the slavery question and also from the differences over the proposed division of the county, which last issue liad arisen as the natural seciuent of the bitter and as yet unsettled county seat qvuirrel of the preceding year. These excitements entered into the elections and the courts, affected business and social relations and were productive of much and long-lasting acrimony and estrangement. The feverish feeling created at the time of the Nelson disturbances several years before, though somewhat suppressed still festered in the minds of the border people in the adjoining state and a similar sensitiveness pervaded to a considerable extent our own comnumity. It was kept alWe by its own distrustfulness and by the occasional escape of a slave, who was always suspected - with perhaps more or less of truth - of having been persuaded to run away, or afterward being harbored and hid by the abolitionists of Quincy.

In the previous year, 1841, three young men, Burr, Work and Thompson, students at Dr. Nelson's IMission institute, some two miles east of Quincy, crossed the river a short distance south of the city and had not long landed before they were arrested under the charge of abducting or attempting to abduct slaves. They were speedily tried, convicted and sentenced to the Missouri penitentiary for a term of twelve years each. That they went over tliere for tliat ]mrpose is more than probable, liut it is still moi'e certain that legal proof was wanting to sustain the charge against them, and tliis fact, added to a general suspicion that they in their rather too verdant philantliropy had been decoyed across the river for the purpose of being caught, brought about their pardon and release from the prison when their periods had about onethird expired. This, however, with other like occasional actions, kept sentiment on tlie slavery subject constantly on the alert.

At a meeting held in Quincy on the 13th of June the abolitionists of the county resolved to organize politically and bring out a county ticket. They nominated for representatives to the legislature R. Sartle, Levi Stillman, Lewis Rowe, Wm. Wells and Richard Eels; county commissioner, II. II. Snow; sheriff, E. II. Fowler; coroner, Edward Turner. This, although the niunerical strength at the polls was shown to be very small, yet drew the ciuestion into notice like the tiaunt of a red flag to their foes, and their actions were closely scrutinized, both here and across the river. An anti-abolition meeting was held at the courthouse which denounced in vigorous language the enticing away of slaves or their concealment. Shortly after the election (sometime in October) a slave swam across the river, got into communication with some of his colored brethren and was taken iinder the protection of Dr. Richard Eels, a prominent physician of the city, living then on Jeisey between Fourth and Fifth streets. The doctor took the fugitive in his buggy at night after giving him a change of clothing and started for the country. He was followed by the j\Iissourians and others who had obtained traces of them and finally the doctor was pressed so hard that lie dismissed his i)assenger and told him to make for the cornfields, which the poor fellow did, but was soon caught and carried back to slavery. The doctor got back safely, but unfortunately there were found two proofs against him in addition to the partial recognition of himself and his horse. There were in the buggy the still wet clothes in which the man had swam the river, and also the dry garments which the man had on when taken, the ownership of which was traced to the doctor. Eels was tried in the Adams county court luuler the then existing fugitive slave law of the state and was convicted and fined. This decision was sustained by the supreme court of the state and of the United States. This case commencing this year and continuing for several years, attracted much attention everywhere, fi-om the importance of the issiies involved, and was the cause of especial interest here from the prominence of the man who was under trial. This revived much of the former feeling of distrust between the neighboring sections, which only slowly wore away as all of tlie slaves here in northeastern Missouri who Avanted to, gradually ran away, as they easily could, but was not fully allayed until the civil wai' pi't an end to it.

The political record of 18-12 was of a very pe- I'uliar cast. It singularly illustrated the strong ])re(_lominance of partisan feeling and old party associations over the demands of local duty and interest. The two parties - the whig and the democratic - were almost ecpially balanced in the city and in the county.

They had been so for many years i)ast - the whigs luiving slightly the superiority, owing in a great measure to the higher relative standing and capacity of the men whom they placed before the public as their representatives and leaders. A reference to the politically prominent men of forty and more years ago will fully sustain this statement. Yet. usually any ordinary local issue, or as it more often happened, the personal popularity or itherwise of a candidate, would easily determine an election and overrule pai'ty action. The special strength of the democratic party lay almo.st exclusively for a number of years on what was known as the "foreign vote."

examination of the poll books that had been used at the elections of that year. That was the last year of elections "viva voce." The ballot system of voting ordained in the later state constitutions was not in existence at that time, and first wa.s nsed in the fall of 1848. Previo)is to that period all voting was done openly and aloud. A register was prepared by the judges containing the names of all supposed candidates under the head of the otrice to which they aspired and each voter as he came to the polls would give in his name, have it written down and then announce successively who he voted for. His vote thus given would be tallied on the line containing the name of the candidate for whom he voted. Thus the poll book was the final "return" and not only could it be known afterward how each man had voted, but also how the vote was progressing during the day. Judge Lott had said that "out of the one thousand and fifty votes that had been ca.st at that time it woidd be found that less than one-fourth of those who had voted the democratic ticket were native born, and that it had been nearly so in proportion for several years past. ' ' On examining the poll book it appeared that out of five hundred and sixty democratic voters less than one hundred had American names. The curious corollary to this is that through the earlier years of the city the foreign vote generally controlled; and it was especially strong for the reason that natiiralization at that time was not a necessary qualification for a state voter, since under the old constitution and until 1848 any white male citizen over twenty-one years of age, and who had been in the state six months, was a qualified voter, whether naturalized or not. This fact is a worthy matter of record, as it has had a strong bearing upon the municipal fortunes of the city. The foreign immigration which poured so extensively after 1835-36 into Quincy, instinctively enlisted in the democratic ranks and constituted for many years its chief strength.

Recurring to the statement made above that political affairs during this year had a pecu- ]i<ir cast, it is somewhat strange that although there was before the people the most important and absorbing local issue that they have ever had - that of the removal of the county seat - yet party nominations were made and strife went on as usual without any special formation upon this question that affected the parties.

The vote, it will be remembered, in 1841 was declared to be in favor of Columbus. The county commissioners neglected to order the removal of the county records. A mandamus was applied for and granted, directing them

Thus the sectional rivalry between the two claimants to the possession of the county seat had at this time become a legal Lssue - to be determined by the courts, and dependent upon the "glorious uncertainties of the law." By the delay thus secured Quincy was greatly the gainer. Columbus came into court fortified by the record of a legally ordered and formally held election and a certificate of a majority of the votes cast being in favor of removal, and that these figures and the formalities of the election were unquestioned. All beside this that was needed and demanded was that the county commis.sioners should transfer the records and offices. Quincy, on the other hand, stood solely upon the refusal of the commissioners to is,sue the necessary order for removal, but there was added to this an assertion of illegalities in the election. While these never came to be fully proven, they were so broadly charged and believed and were tinged with so much of plausibility as to greatly cloud the question and make a decision upon it difficult and doubtful.

It appeared, for instance, that at the August election in 1841, 2,978 votes were cast for members cf congress, while at the same time the vote on the county seat question was 3,181 - an excess of 203 votes. The well-known latitude that is usually allowed on a sectional vote, without question, in localities where the .sentiment is all one way, gave credence to the suspicion and charge that this excess was illegal and that the majority of 91 obtained by Columbus was cast by unqualified voters. This suspicion was strengthened when, a year later, at the Augu.st election in 1842. there were but 3,069 votes polled for governor in a very warmly eontested election, and on the same day 1,574 votes were given for Wm. Richards (who represented the Quincy interest and was its candidate for re-election as county commissioner), and 1,393 votes cast for J. Turner, the representative of Columbus, 30 votes being thrown away on the abolition candidate who was unpledged. Here was a falling oft' within a year of nearly two hundred votes on this local test question, when it would seem that natural causes and the continuing interest in the question would have increased the vote ; and. significantly, as it was claimed, the falling oft' was from the former Columbus vote. All this tended to weaken the claims for its removal. So stood the issue at the end of the year 1841.

several months. Iludcr the I'equireiuent of the maiidanuis issued by -jiid'ie l)oui;'las in September, 1841, they "ag-reed to disagree." Two of the board (Richards and Seehorn, a majority) decided that the result of the election was so doubtful that they would not obey the writ of the circuit court. The (>ther commissioner. Smith, said that he was ready and willing to order the removal of the records.

Thereupon Judge Douglas on the 4th of JIarch issued a peremptory nuindamus to the conmiissioner.s ordering their immediate action. From this Quincy at once appealed to the supreme court, giving sci-urity, and the settlement of the ease Was, of coiii'se, still farther delayed. It was argued in the supreme court in the July following by (Teorge C. Dixon for the commissioners and Archibald Williams for the Columbus claimants, and the decision was ordered deferred until December.

Immediately after the August election of 1842 the contest took a new shape and a bombshell was thrown into the Columbus camp which broke its unity and resulted in the full defeat of all its aspirations. At a meeting held in Quincy on the '26th of October the proposition wa.s agreed to that the legislature should be asked to divide the county liy cutting off the ten townships on the eastei-n side of Adams, and therefrom form a new county. Columbus was asked to unite with this niovement, but refused. In fact, Columbus could not safely agree to it for the reason that the town lies on the extreme western edge of the proposed new county - a part of it being in Gilmer township, and the village would thus be cut in two, and the same objection would then lie against Columbus as a covmty seat ("away at one side of the comity") that had been before used against Quincy.

This project stirred into activity every local interest in the county and proved that the previous movement had not been based on a preference for Columbus merely, but for a county center. A half score of plans were started for outlining new c(uniHes. most of them not favoring a division of the c(uiuty, but demanding, if a division of the county should be made, that it should be so outlined as to make a central point the county seat, most generally ignoi'iug Columbus. Some of these proposed to take in ])ait of Hancock, some part of Schuyler, and some part of Brown or Pike, and all seemed to have forgotten about Coluuilms. The end Avas not difficult to foresee.

This movement, adroitly originated for a division of the county, so as to compromise the differences between easlcni and western sections, practically decided, at tlie very oiitset that the county seat ultimately would remain at Quincy. Time had been gained, and the issue ti-ausferretl itself again to the state legislature, which then convened every two years on the first Monday in December.

As early as the 19th of December, at the session of 1842-43, Mr. Wheat, one of the representatives from Adams county, introduced a bill for the division of the county, based upon the proposition which had been made and adopted at the meeting in Quincy on the 26th of Oetobei'.

Upon this there followed a flood of petitions for and remonstrances against the proposed action, coming from all parts of the eoiinty with every variety of project, proposition and suggestion. It was made a matter of long, bitter and doubtful disc\ission, and came to a tinal determination in the early part of 1843, resulting in a nominal division of the county, which separation stood as of a record which was never pi'actically completed throughout the five following years.

Mr. Wheat's action in this matter was not in accord with that of the other four representatives, and was not in sympathy with the jiopularities of the period, the public geiu^rally sustaining those who were opi)os(>(l to a division of the comity, but it is a truth wliich no one now looking back to that contest can deny, that, howevei', it might have been operative ui)on the interests of Cohnnbus or any other section of the county antagonistic to Quincy: so far as the city was concerned this movement which he drove through the legislature, to the peril of personal popularity, was that which clinched the continuance of the county seat at Quincy for all time to come. This story of the comity seat difficulties and the temporary division of the county is a part of past histcny, upon wiiich de|»ended the future interests of Quincy. It could he told in far more amplified detail, because it -was tlie absorbing idea of its time. It was settled during the winter of 1842-43, but it had kindled passion and prejudice which may claim consideration in a subsequent chapter.

-Manufacturing interests during this year showed a steady and healthj^ progi'ess not only in the enlargement and increase of a number of already existing industries, but also in the (\stablishment of several new enterprises. An iron foundry was started by James Adams and ililton Worrell, on the east side of Front street, between Bi-oadway and Spring. This was the first estaldisbment of the kind, the pioneer in l)usiiiess of a special industry that has gradually grown to be one of the most extensive and substantial factors in the permanent prosperity of the place.

Abcnit the .same time O. V. & (i. A. Miller, who had as early as 1836 opened the first regular drug store in the place, built a castor and linseed oil factory on the west side of Front street, opi)osite the Adams & Worrell factory. 'J'his was a few years later changed into a steam tlonring mill. At this time the castor bean mania was overspreading the west, as extensively as had not a long time before the "Morns ^Inlticaulis" or silk work fever, and as a little later came up the beet sugar craze. These all had their day and it is curious now to revert to those times, when, for two or three years so many of our farmers set off and carefully planted four or five acres of the white mulberry or Morus Multicaulis, and after that sensation had fallen through, each one had next his acre or more of the handsome flowering castor bean ; and still farther on, and but shortly afterward, all expectations were sweetened by the profuse cultivation of the sugar beet, which was to rival and exclude from use all tropical sugars, and all this unfortunately worked to the partial neglect of the cultivation of the great staple cereals which are adapted to our latitude, climate and soil.

The winter of 1842-43 was unusually severe. The snow fall began early, and continued longer and more in amount probably than in any season since the proverbial "big snow" winter of 1831. Business and travel throughout the central and northern part of the state was for a large part of the winter done on sleds and sleighs.

A sleighing plea.sure party, for instance, left Quincy during this winter, visited Jacksonville and Springfield and returned safely on riuiuers, after being gone nearly two weeks.

Sidney Brebse. Dull Business. Judge

The river was unusually high during the winter of 1842-43, and continued so until late in the year. It had closed on the first of Decemlier, 1842, opened on the 24th of January following, and until about the middle of February there was some, though difficult navigation. It then firmly closed, opening again on the 6th of April, and did not close during the winter of 1843-44.

The rather unusual excitement of an earthfiuake shock occurred on the 4th of January, the heaviest that had been known for many years. The rumbling was distinctly heard and the shaking of the ground and buildings felt and seen throughout all central Illinois. With the exception of a general scare and an occasional break of crockery, no damage was done. The city council early in the year, made an attempt to secure as a public landing, all of the river front lying south of Maine street, and west of a line parallel with Front street and eighty feet west. The consent of most of the owners of the pi'operty affected, to convey the same to the city was obtained, but some of them objected, and although the council on the 8th of July, declared the land in question a landing, yet this summar.v course was indecisive and was not eventually sustained.

The city election in 1843 resulted in the complete success of the democratic ticket. Enoch Conyers was re-chosen mayor over Capt. Joseph Artns. and Thomas Jasper, Samuel Holmes and R. S. Benneson, elected aldermen. SamT Leech was re-elected city clerk. An official statement made by the city clerk in September showed rather an unsatisfactory financial condition. It reported an indebtedness of $22,098.50, of which $5,746.48 would mature during the year, and that the tax assessment of $4,080.14, if all applied to this debt, would leave a deficit of $1,636.34. How the apprehended trouble was avoided, does not appear, probabl.y, as in the later years, by postponement and hoping, ]Micawber like, that something would "turn up." The salary of the city clei'k was fixed at $100. showing either a commendable spirit of economy, or that the duties of the office were not very heavy. H. S. Cooley, then a young lawyer not long a resident of this city, who afterwards became prominent politically, being secretary of state when he died, a few years later, was appointed city attorney. A special census taken by order of the council in November in reference to the school question, which was still in a very unsettled state, gave a total population of 3,148 and of children under twenty years of age, in the city and adjoining section, which formed with Quincy a school district, 1,357.

Some political feeling was temporarily roused by a change in the postoffiee. Robert Tillson. a whig, who had held the office for ten or twelve yeai's, was removed and a Mr. Clift'orcL a Tylerite from Alton, appointed in his place. ^lajor Wm. G. Flood, and Sanniel licecli were re-ap- ])ointed respectively register and receiver of the public land office. Judge Douglas having been elected to congi-ess. his place on the bench was filled by the ai)j)oiutment of Jesse B.

Thomas, Jr.. a son of Jesse B. Thomas, who was one of the first two U. S. senators, from Illinois, and who is credited with being the author of the famous Missouri compromise. Judge Thomas held this position for about two years only, when he resigned and was succeeded by Xorman II. Purple, whose term was ended by the new constitution in 18-1:8.

This was in some measure a comparatively <iuiet and slow business year, yet it was marked with an unusual degree of local feeling and excitement. The old abolition and Mormon disturbances had been temporarily allayed, to reappear, however, in the near futiu'e, but there remaiiied the unsettled public school question, the strife over the county seat and county division matter. To these the most stirring congressional contest was added, that up to that period this section, or, indeed, the state had ever witnessed.

The political record of Quinoy and of Adams county in 1843 is an episode, which demands a more than ordinary detail. It was the era of an entrance into national iufiueuce by the state of Illinois. This was on account of not only the increased rejiresentation of the state from three to seven members of congress, but also because such a number of younger men, of only state repute heretofore, struck out for a more extended reputation, which many of them fairly won, and maintained to the exclusion of the older politicians, who had for the twentyfive years held the represent;'tion of Illinois in the national councils. Out of the fourteen candidates for congress in 1843 one only, Casey, had ever previously served, and only one other, Douglas, had even been a candidate for the honor. The i)olitical excitement was more intense than has ever attended any similar strife, scarcely excepting the famous discussion fifteen years later between Douglas and Lincoln.. The interest in the election lay in the congressional contests, there being at the time neither state nor national ticket in the field. It may be well to state that this year (1843) wms the last time that congressmen were elected in the odd numbered years.

The next election came off in 1844, and ever since, members of congress have been chosen in the even innnbered years with state or presidential officials. Before this it sometimes happened that a state would not be represented in the lower house of congress in case that a called session w,-is held during the sjiring or summer of the odd ycjir. The term of a mendier begins on the 4th of March, although usually the session commences in December. Illinois was thus not represented at the early part of the called session of congress in 1841.

Unusual interest, of eoui-se, attached to an election which would determine who were to be the future "great men" of Illinois, and special attention was turned toward the Quincy district, which was of doubtful political complexion, and in which the two foremost of rising leaders in their respective parties were pitted in opposition. These were Stephen A. Douglas, the presiding judge on this circuit, and 0. II. Browning, the admitted head of the bar in the western portion of the state, both re.sidents of Quincy, as the contestants. Each enjoyed a prestige of almost unbroken political success, a most devoted party popularity and a personal reputation for consistency and integrity which was unassailable. They were nearly of the same age. Douglas had been a conspicuous politician from his first coming to the state. Browning, whose eminence was inore definitely legal, held an equally prominent political reputation and his andjitions Avere then sti-ongly in that direction, lie was, and no doiihl coi'i'cctly, considered at the time as the most attractive and able debater of the two. Douglas, though strong on the stump, had not attained that peculiar position he studied for and afterward attained, of being, as he unc|uestionably ranked in later years, the most popular and powerful stumj) sjieaker of the day. Douglas was not the first choice of his party in convention. Judge Cavarly, of Greene, and Gov. Carlin preoeeded him in the early ballots, but the nomination finally fell to him. Browning was nominated by his party without opposition. It is more than probable that had either of the two first named above received the democratic nomination. Browning's popularity would have won for himself the election, and it is e(iually sure that against any t)ther candidate than Browning, Douglas" majority of about 400 would at least have been doubled. They canvassed the district together most exhaustively during the early summer months to within less than a week before the election in August, when both were taken down with sickness, which nearly proved fatal, and from the effect of which, it took many months to restore them. This was the most complete carrying out of the old "stump speaking" custom that could be imagined. The parties traveled together, sometimes .slept together, spoke together almost daily at half a dozen or more places in each of the counties. Such exertion naturally brought out an extraordinarily large vote.

The result of this spirited contest, between tAvo men whose names have since become national, was that Browning carried the city by a majority of 19 and the county by 410, but was beaten in tlu' district by 409 Votes. It is curious to speculate how delayed might have been the urowth to eminence of Judge Douglas had he failed at this election. That his great talents have sooner or later made themselves controlling is true, but his advent to national notice at this peculiar time was several years gained in his movement to fame.

In the county, ilarquette or the eastern part not counting, the democratic ticket generally was successful, re-electing J. H. Holton, recorder, and Nicholas Wren, county clerk. J. C. Bernard contested the election of Wren without success, but four years later had the satisfaction of being elected over his former opponent.

At this August election of 1848, excepting for members of congress, political lines were somewhat disregarded. Peter Lott, Timothy Kelly, Ebenezer Jloore and Henry Asbury were elected magistrates, all of them respected and capable men. The first two were democrats, the others whigs. Judge Lott was an able lawyer, who had creditably occupied the circuit bench, and was subsequently, in 1844, elected to the legi.slature, served as a captain in the Mexican war, was chosen circuit clerk in 1848, and at the end of his term receiving a federal appointment, removing to the Pacific Coast, where he died. Capt. Kelly was the most pi'ominent Irishman of his day in Quincy, a man of enterprise and means. He built the "Kelly building" at the northeast corner of Maine and Fifth streets, where is now the Dodd Building, which was at the time of its erection next to the Quincy House, the most pretentious structure in the town. He enlisted in the ^Mexican war, became a lieutenant, and was killed while bravely fighting at Buena Vista, and his body was brought to Quincy. and buried with honor. Mr. iloore. who had been twice chosen mayor and afterwards became a banker, was always among the leading men of the place. He removed to Washington some twenty years later and died there.

Henry Asbiiry, the only one of the four now (1883) living, was, for many years an especially efficient and popular magistrate, holding also at various times other important public trusts, and is the oldest living "Esquire" and probably the oldest licensed lawyer in the city.

At the same time, there were chosen as constables, Capt. J. Sehwindler, an intelligent and influential German, J. M. Pitman, Wilson Land and Wm. P. Reeder. Of these "Billy" Reeder had been a constable from the earliest times, seeming to have a sort of sinecure claim to the place, like that of old Henry Jasper to the city marshalship. Pitman was afterward twice chosen sheriff, four times mayor and once elected to the legislature. Lane, yet living here, subsequently filled the office of sheriff and county ti'easurer. ^Mention is made of these officials to show the substantial character of the men to whom p\iblic trusts, however, subordinate, Avere given in those days. In the earliest times it necessarily happened in a sparse population, that officials would sometimes be chosen of limited attainments; later, qualification was much more carefully looked to, far more than it has been since, when partisan dictum furnishes the candidate, ancl varnishes over the defects of the public servants.

There was but little change in the federal representation of Qiiincy. Flood and Leech, as before stated, were reappointed receiver and register of the public land office. These were then highly important and responsible positions, and foi' them these two men were exceptionally well fitted. The local feeling over the removal of 'Sir. Tillson, a whig, from the postoffice, was mainly because, both whigs and democrats, felt that, when the change in the office, which all had expected, occurred, some Quincy democrat should be the lucky recipient, and not an imported stranger, hence both parties united in condemning the appointment. ]Mr. Clifford's position as postmaster for a couple of years, was no "becl of roses." He was entirely alone. Vice-President Tyler, who succeeded on the death of President Harrison, had no supporters in Quincy, and like Vice-President Johnson, who came in after President Lincoln, he appeared to be attempting the construction of a political bridge which would carry himself and his administration over to the party that had not elected him, and although a temporary use was made of this bridge, yet at the end of the presidential term, both it and its projectors in both eases were ignored by the party they sought, as well as by the party they had abandoned.

Richard M. Young, who had served for many years as circuit .judge, and during the past six as IT. S. Senator, was succeeded in this last office by Sidney Breese, and with this his local connection with Quincy ceased. Most of his after life was spent in public positions at Washington, where he died. He had been, in his various capacities, for many years, the most prominent personage of the place. He was an industrious, exemplary, pui'e minded man. of more than average ability as a jurist, and greatly respected in private life. On leaving the senate he was elected by the legislature to one of the vacant supreme judgships in the northern part of the state, which he held for a brief period, until he went to W^ashington.

the graiu and provision market, which have heen the general index to business. Wheat sold in June at 70 cents per bushel, in October at 50, and 65 cents about the middle of November. Flour during the year ranged from .'1*3.75 to $4.25 per Ijarrel. There was among the five or six mills a falling off in the manufacture of Hour of several thousand barrels. The provision trade was similarly affected in prices, though the amount produced was somewhat increased. Pork opened at about .$2.00, slightly increasing in price as the season advanced. By the middle of December 7,000 hogs had l)een jjacked, ipiite an increase in the product of the same period in the preceding year.

Winter began early, coming in with an unusually severe snowstorm on the 24:th of October, but the weather for tlie tirst half of the season, was comparatively mild.

A slight ripple of the slumbering ])ro and anti-slavery feeling oceiu'red during the fall, and a ciiunty "anti-abolition" was held at Mendon on the 29th of September, followed on the 3d of October by an abolition meeting. The abolition vote in the county at the -Vngust <'lection was 137, and 23(1 in tin- eonijression.-d disfict.

The two <'ontested election cases created at the August election, that of Barnard vs. Wren for comity clerk, and of Con.yers vs. Seehorn, for county connnissioner, came up, on appeal, on the second of October in the circuit court, and were then and there exhaustively ai'Liued by the best talent of the Adams county bar. A very feverish feeling over these suits had everywhere arisen, partly because they blended somewhat with the county-seat strife, and also because the.y had unavoidably assumed a semipolitical coloring. Judge Thomas, the inunediate successor of Judge Douglas, on tlie latter 's election to congress, before whom these issues were tried, finding tliis iniexpeeted and awkward elephant in his path at the very threshold, prudently reserved his decision for three weeks, making a trip in the meantime to Springfield for the purpose, as it was ungenerously asserted, of ascertaining whether his decision, either way given, would l)e sustained liy the supreme ccmrl in the event of an .-ippeal being taken from liis court. On his return the decision was given, on the 25th of October, in favor of the two democratic candidates, who had already received the certificates of election, to which they were probably entitled. It was scarcely fair to thus impugn the course of the big, easy-going .Judge, but his constitutional incertitude and decided partisanism gave l)lausibility to the charge. Whether his conclusion was right or wrong, its force was thus nnich weakened, and his own standing also.

This decision, like that of Judge Douglas, (to the etfeet that Marcpiette, the new county, though as yet unorganized, remained as "attached to Adams for judicial purposes,") mixing with political interests, or being used by the politician, gave still more complications to the county-seat ([uan-el.

Judge Thomas was a very large, fat man, an extreme contrast to his recent predecessor, Douglas, and those unfriendly to him, said that the mental contrast was "invertedly equal." This was not just to the judge, who, though somewhat indolent and unstiulious, was of respectable ability. As heretofore, with the excei)tion of Douglas, our judges had been fiu' man.y years, home men, the appointment of Judge Thomas was not cordially regarded by some, his judicial coui-se was prejudicially viewed and lie was soon transf(M-red to another circuit.

Two "county seat question" campaign papers sprang up during the season, one published at Columbus, tlu^ other at Quincy. They ended life with tlie election. The Herald, the oldest newspaper ill this section, suspend(Ml on the 10th of August, caused by that chi'onic (-(implaiiit. indigenous to western journals, jiecnniary inanition. It resumed on the (11 h of Octolier under the editorial control of Iv A. Thompson, whose management during the following months of high political and local excitement was more amusing than satisfactory. The Whii;- was thus for a brief time the only regularly ])ublished newspaper in the county.

The bil! for a division of Adams county became a law in February, after having passed through a most prolonged and exhaustive contest in both houses of the legislature. It created a county called IMarquette, which subsequently was named llighland. formed from the ten townships on tlie eastern side of the county. Tli(^ bill ordained that there should be .-111 election held on the third day of April for county otficers, so as to complete the organizalion. There had been at home as well as in the general assembly, a sectional strife over this matter during the entire winter. The whole eastern jiart of the county was averse to a seiiaration, es|)ecially ^\iien, as in this case, it was made witlumt the coiiseni of 1h(> people who were to be thus expatriated. The western portion, on the other hand, the city included, was etjually united in behalf of a division. Very large and earnest meetings were almost daily held in various iiarts of the county, wherein there was much crimination, and after denunciation of the county representatives at Springfield, Mdierever their action had not accorded, with the local wish. Especiall.v severe was the popular stricture from the eastern part oi' the rmuity against the aetiou which forced them to secede contrary to their desire, and it was personally leveled at those representatives who had refused to allow the question to be submitted to a popular vote. No small number . of aspiring' political reputations went to wreck before this sweeping storm. Browning, almost alone of the prominent public men, managed to come out unscathed. lie delivered an address on the 27th of January to a very large meeting in Quincy. in which he vindicated his action in opposition to the division. He showed that though this course was in eontlict with the wishes of his immediate neighbors and home friends, and also adverse to his own personal interests, yet that he was pledged thei-eto and was also bound by a remonstrance against a division containing 1,925 signatures, while all petitions in its favor footed up but 1,798 subscribers. This bold, frank position added much to Mr. BroM'ning's popular strength, as was shown in the surprising majority by which he carried the county at the congressional election.

The election for county officers prescribed in the law creating Marquette county, to be held on the 3rd day of April, was less than a fai-ce. It was a nullity. It did not come off. With g, singular unanimity of sentiment, everybody agreed not to vote, and, of course, the county remained unorganized. There was thus presented the singular situation, for several years, of a community claiming all their political rights and exercising only such as they chose to, contesting and voting on state and national issues, but utterly refusing to act on county matters. This was eomparativeh' easy to do for the reason that at that time votes undei' the viva voce system could be cast at any pre cinct in the county. The Marquette men on the day of the election would come over in crowds to Payson or Gilmer or anywhere across the line into Adams and there vote for president, congres,smen and governor. This continued for some three years. The entire failure to have even the form of an election on the third of April as the law required was a point strongly urged to establish the nullity of the entire law. as it was claimed that an election and organization on that specially prescribed date was an essential, and that with a failure in this feature, the law failed.

The two decisions heretofore refei-red to. were constant sources of irritation, since they inevitably came up to thought at every election and every r.e.ssion of the circuit court. They involved questions that had to be met and decided, as they were promptly perhaps correctly, yet they were continually striven over. The decision given by Judge Thomas, because it touched upon the election privileges of the people, the most sensitive of all public subjects, was the most criticised, and yet strictly under the law, looking back to it in later times, it appears more nearly correct than it then was felt to be.

The legislatiu-e had cxchided the eastern portion of Adams comity from any participation in the local affairs of what continued to be Adams comity, and this was the law as upheld by Thomas. The other decision, that of Judge Douglas, to the effect that the citizens of what was called Marquette county, remained attached to Adams for all judicial purposes, seemed valid both in reason and necessity. The territory embraced Avithin the bounds of the contemplated county, had been largely placed in this judicial circuit, and its political position only had been afterward oi'dered to be changed, leaving its judicial associations un- Touched. It stood in fact as did in former years, Hancock and some of the other counties of the state, which, though established by boundaries, were on account of scant population, temporarily attached to an oT'gauized county. The unreasoning prejudices of the time were so bitter, that Judge l^ouglas' course brought against him some partisan criticism, but it did him no injury and his conclusions were generally approved.

Building improvements were not relatively so extensive as they had been during the two or three previous years, yet much of it was of a i)ermanent and substantial character. Some large brick structures were raised on Front street and elsewhei'e, adding greatly to the appearance of the place. Among others of the more pretentious kind, was the three story brick of A. T. Miller, at the corner of Fourth and Maine street, on the site of the old state bank building. This was, when erected, and for some time aftei-ward, the largest store in the city, and quite notable for that reason. It was the Parker building in which the Herald office was long located and which was destroyed by fire in 1870.

Education received a beneficial advance in the establishment of three excellent private schools, a long felt need. One was the boys' school of C. A. Lord, which promised and did well for a year or two. but was then discontinued. Another was the boys' school of Messrs. Dayton and Cochrane, who had resigned their positions in the public schools. These two schools were opened in the fall and winter of 1843. That of Dayton and Cochrane

A third enterprise of this kind was the female seminary of I\[iss Dotj*. which, though not up to what the place might properly have had, was yet in many resi)eets, a superior institution, and for six or seven succeeding years afforded as ample and thorough instruction as the average ot such insfitutions in the west. It was at first located on the west side of the public square and afterward in the brick building on the south side of Maine street, east of Sixth, erected specially for this purpose. This enterprise was much fostered by the personal efforts of Miss Catherine Beecher, of the noted Beeeher family, who thi'ough her intei-est in the cause of education came to Quincy, and for a while took conli'ol of the institution.

The public schools "dragged their slow length along," embarrassed still, somewhat by opposition, but mainly by lack of funds. An effort had been made by petition, to the legislature, to have the German taxpayers exempted from the payment of the school tax. This movement was not countenanced generally by the Germans, and failed to succeed, but the agitation of such an issue was hurtful, and showed its effect unfortunately in the city council, 'i'he feeble and unsupported condition of the public had become such, that a public meeting of the people held on the 6th of September, called upon the council to make an appropriation of $300 ]ier quarter, and pay up the salaries. The council said that they could not and would not do so. and that they would resign before so doinji'. The trustees of schools thf.u directed tlic teachers to discontinue and the schools wei-e suspended. Cooler councils, however, soon prevailed, and at a meeting of the council. Septemlier the l^Dth, provision was made by the issue of -^'M)0 in vouchers, to go as far as it woid.l, ami a bmid for .$1,200. This re-opened the schools, tliouuh in a crippled condition, and with the loss of their most valuable teachers.

Of The Mormons. Smith. Their Le.A.Der

THE GREAT FLOOD. LIBRARY. HI.STORICAL CLUB. MILITARY FEELING. .SEVERAL MILITARY COMPANIES ORGANIZED. FIRST ODD FELLOWS LODGE. DEATH OF DR. NELSON. MOVEMENT TO EDUCATE COLORED CHILDREN. GRE.A.T POLITICAL EXCITEMENT. MORMON W^AR. MORMONS IN POLITICS. PRESUMPTION OF THE MORMONS. SMITH. THEIR LE.A.DER.

same time in .May and June, of the Missouri, Illinois and upper Mississippi rivers, spreading over the valleys from bluff to blutt', produced the most extensive and prolonged inundation iiiat up to that period had been known. The injury ari.sing from such a flood was of course very great, and the subsidence of the waters in the fall was followed by unusual sickness. Thi-oughout the winter of 1843-4, the j\lississipjti had remained very high, being only closed by ice for a few days, from Feb. 14th to 17th, and after that time navigation continued unintei'rupted until a temporary freeze on the 12th of Decemlier.

Business during the past winter had begun to impro\-c and liecame more stiri'ing and prospei'- ous than in 1S4:{. About twenty thousand hogs were packed, which was a large increase over the product of any former season. Manufacturing interests, which had been lately somewhat depressed, revived and continued active. Nearly thirty-five thousand barrels of flour were ground by the half dozen mills of the city and neighborhood, this being nearly fifty per cent advani'c on the preceding year's business. The times still v,-ere "hard" and money was scarce. The only paper in circulation not at a discount, was that of the Indiana and .Missouri state banks.

A course of library lectures was the chief weekly enjoyment of the winter. These were a dozen in number, prepared by our own citizens, the professional men generally, and were quite popular. One very interesting lecture given by Judge Snow on the 14th of February, on the old times of Quincy, was the inciting cause of what then promised to save some valuable records of Quincy 's infant history. The interest felt on the sub.ject Avas such that the Ilistorii-al Club, which had been rather inactive f(U- so)ne years, proposed to the city council to furnish free of expense, a manuscript of Quincy of which the club was to have sixty copies whenever the same was published. Bartlett and Sullivan, of the Whig, proposed to print the Avoi'k and sell the same at twenty-five cents ]icr volume, if the city would pay for publishing the sixty copies. The city council agreed li accept Ihese proposals, as soon as a copy should be furnished and appointed a committee of three of its members to collect statistics and furnish them for the use of the club. This ]ii-oioct, the first and only general effort to collate and preserve facts bearing upon our early histo'-y, seems to have quietly died. This is to be regretted, for that -was a period when there was much of incident and legend fresh in recollection, now forever forgotten, and there were men liien living who could have largelv contributed to sueli a work. This lecture of Judge Snow's, which is imfortuuately lost, and an address on the same subject by Mr. Willard Ive.yes a few years later, were the only efforts made by any of our old pioneers to place our early history into print in a connected and perinanent form. Beyond the scant writings of these two men, both specially familiar with what they might have written more about, and some more extended reminiscences from Mr. Charles Holmes, who resided here from 1828 to 1833, hardly a scrap of history or memoranda even exists from the pen of any of the old settlers who were here prior to 1830.