Quincy Township (part 7 of 74)

The new constitution luwing changed the judicial system of the state by the creation of a separate supreme court in place of the court composed of the several circuit judges, and prescribing that these officials would be by a popular election, instead of appointed by the governor and senator, as heretofore, elections tlierefor were held on the iirst Monday in September. Judge Purple, who had most acceptably presided in the circuit court of this county, declined to continue in this position, assigning as the reason, that he could not live on the $1,000 fixed by the constitution, as the salary for the circuit judges. His retirement from the bench was much regretted. He had earned distinction of being the most able and satisfactory judge in the line of capable jurists who had hitherto adorned the Adams county bench.

It had been claimed and lielieved by many that the judicial elections would not "become political, but they did at once. Wm. A. Minshall, whig, of Schuyler county, and Wm. R. Archer, democrat, of Pike, became candidates for the place. Minshall was successful, although beaten in Adams county by about the party majority, 223 votes. He presided over this circuit until 1851, when a new circuit was formed consisting of Adams, Hancock, Henderson and fiercer counties. At this same election R, S. Blackwell was elected prosecuting attorney over Elliott, who had formerly filled the office, and S. 11. Treat was chosen without opposition to tlie supreme judgeship from this district.

At the city election. April ITtli, John Abbe, democrat, was elected mayor by a vote of 545 to 506, over John Wood, whig, who had held the office successively through the past four years. The democrats carried the city, elecing Amos Green and H. L. Simmons, aldermen in the Fir.st and Second wards, and the whigs securing George Bond, in the Third. With this complete control, the entire city organization was made democratic. At this time, under the first charter, only the mayor, aldermen and city marshal were elected by the people, the other officers being chosen by the council. W. II. Benneson was made city clerk, displacing that veteran official. Judge Snow, and I. N. Grover, selected as superintendent of ])ublic schools. To his intelligent interest and action during this early period of its history, the educational sy.stem of the city is greatly indebted.

A special census ordered by the city council, in connection with the public school matters, and very carefully taken by I. O. Woodruff, gave a total population on the 16th of :\Iay. of 5,896 : white males, 2,953, white females, 2,841 ; blacks, males, 52, females. 49.

The winter of '47-48 was long, but mild. A great deal of snow fell eai^ly, often and late, att'ording almost uninterrupted good sleighing throughout the winter. There was as late as ]\Iarch litli, the day of the election on the new constitution, a snow storm of unusual severity.

The first steaml)oat hull constructed in Quincy was during this year. It was set up at tlie foot of Delaware street, and was launched on the 18th of March. The advantages of (Quincy, as a steamboat building point, with the convenient harbor of its "bay," had been in earlier times much dwelt upon, and hence this launch was ciuite an affair and attracted a large concourse of people. The hull was successfully set afloat, and towed down to St. Louis, to 1ic completed and receive its machinei'v.

Tek'graphir connnunication with the outside world was established in the summer of this year. It had been much delayed by a contr(iv<'rsy l)etween the O'Rielly, and the Kendall i.t Smith interests, which had extended all over the west. Quincy was called upon for a subscription of $10,000. At a public meeting held on the 26tli of February, $7,200 was subscribed. Soon after the full amount was made up. On the 8th of July the wires were brought into Quincy. The first formal message transmitted was from Sylvester Emmons, at Beardstown, to the Quincy Whig, to which a reply was sent, as the Whig mentioned it, "Quick as lightning." On the 12th, the line was comjileted from Beardstown to Springfield, making a connection with St. Louis.

The fir.st "'direeton'" of the city now made it.s appearaiK-e. It was a crude affair, as contrasted witli tliose of later days, but answered the wants of the time. It was gotten np by a Dr. Ware, also a .stranger in the city. He was an eccentric man. He projected about this time, what he called a "Mutual Political Journal." It was to be a novelty in this way. One-half was to be edited by a Whig, and the other by a Democi'at. so that the parties could fight their battles on the one field. The project died about the time that it was born. There had before this, been two attempts at making up a directory, but they were ti'ifiing, and this one of Ware's ma.v be fairly called the fir.st complete one, such as it was.

Quincy had as yet, no railroad facilities, or "railroad felicities," as it was ignorantly but felicitiously expressed by a blundering member of the Legislature, who did not realize his own apt perversion of language when he thus styled them. The only railroad in actual operation in the state at this time was that completed portion of the Northern Cross Road (now the Wabash) between Springfield and Naples, which was all that had cropped out from the great Internal Improvement system of 1836. This magnificent plan which was to have spider-webbed all Illinois with iron, and upon which millions of money had been wa.sted, was now dead, beyond all resurrection, and with it had sunk the credit of the state, but a feverish feeling was everywhere prevalent that the interior resources of the state outside the range of lake and river navigation should be reached after and developed. Railroad meetings had been held here in December, 1847, and in January and later in the year 1848. These movements culminated soon after in the buildings of the C. B. & Q.. and afterward, the Wabash to Quincy and the commencement of our great railroad bond indebtedness. The state sold its unfinished railroads ; and that portion of the "Northern Cross" west of the Illinois river, \:pon which some hundreds of thousands of dollars had been expended, was purchased by parties in Adams and Brown counties for $8,000. The company commenced work, but not very .successfully, and finally merged their ownership and interests with the city by whose large subscription mainly the roads were constructed.

The city council with an eye, that it has always had. sometimes with more zeal than judgment, towards advancing the material general prosperity of the city, appropriated $500 towards the improvement of the harbor conditioned on the citizens subscribing an equal amount. The appropriation stood, but the individual subscriptions were laggard. At their May meeting the council, acceding to the recpiest of the city council of Alton, passed resotions of remonstrance against the action of the city of St. Louis in the building of a dyke from Bloody Island to the Illinois shore, thus forcing the Mississippi into the narrow channel that it now has between this island and the Missouri shore. This was the commencement of a controversy between Illinois and Missouri interests, which lasted, and controlled our legislature for the following fifteen years. The issue was. that all public improvements in Illinois should be for the benefit solely of points in Illinois, and not for places in either of the states on our eastern or western boundary. That is all forgotten now.

The fire depai'tment. which Quincy has alwa.vs had reason to pride itself on, took its best this year. Its inception was in 1838 when the town bought four ladders, twelve buckets and .six firehooks, which led at once to the formation of a hook and ladder company. This was followed in 1839 by the purchase of a fire engine at a cost of $1,12.5, aud the organization of Fire company No. 1. It would be amusing now to read the list of the now "grave and revered seniors," Wells, Bull, Stone, Morgan, Green and others, the young bucks of that time who "ran with the machine." Another engine, a second-hand one from St. Louis, the "Mai'ion," was purchased by the cit.v for the sum of $600, a companj-, No. 2, formed of similar men to those above named and from the emulation that sprang at once came the high efficiency and repute which this department of the city institiitions has always maintained.

The annual fiscal statement for the year ending April. 1848, exhibited a much larger revenue than that of any of the preceding eight years, and also a corresponding increase of expenditure. The total expense record of the city was $15,794.05. and as showing how and where the money went, among the larger items of account were for salaries, $1,547.86 : streets, $2,600; schools, $1,841.88; poorhouse and paupei's. $1,142.46; public lancting, $635.65; interest on debt. $1,498.90; fire department, $258.88. There was received from taxes, $6,271 ; wharfage. .$1,147.31; licenses. $2,656.97.

The bonded debt at this time was comparatively small and the interest was regularly met. The credit of the city was good, vouchers generally pa.ssed at a little less than face value, and it was not until some years later that they declined to the ruinous rate of disii8 count under which they weakened for twenty years or more. It was a costly after-page in the city history, when for many years, its warrants and vouchers bore a depreciated value of from thirty to forty percent, causing an equivalent addition to the cost of every public improvement or expenditure and adding ju.st so much more to the increasing pecuniary burden. The usual tax levy was ordered of ^2 of one per cent for general and Vy of one per cent for school purposes. The schools were now in a prosperous and improving condition. An attempt was made by the colored citizens to obtain a separate public school. Several meetings were held and the council was petitioned in that behalf, but the matter was deferred and nothing came of it.

The past experiments of the city in running the ferry had never given satisfaction and it was now licensed to the charter owners for $61 per month.

The winter l}usiness of 1847-48 figured up fairly, the price of hogs ran from $1.75 to $2.15, and 19,906 were reported as packed, the largest number yet known._ Wheat through the season averaged about In cents. The mills - reported in the fall about 3,000 bushels ground daily. Quite a loss to the place occurred on the "l8th of September in the destruction by fire of Miller's woolen factory, which had been well operated for the past two years. A severe tornado struck the city on the 21st of June, destroying several buildings and doing a good deal of general damage.

Another weekly newspaper made its appearance on the 13th of September. It was called the Quincy Tribune and Free Soil Banner, edited by an association of gentlemen. It was as its name indicated, an anti-slavery extension or "Wilmot proviso" journal and supported the Van Buren and Adams electoral tickets. It was spicily conducted during the campaign, but the publication ceased in the following year. On the first of December was issued the Western Ijaw Journal, edited by Chai'les Oilman, reporter for the Illinois Supreme Court. It was the first legal journal of its kind in the state and continued in monthly publication until the death of its editor a year or two later.

At the August election, the last which was held in that month, the new constitution having changed the time to November, Wm. A. Richardson was re-elected to congress without opposition, and the democrats carried the county by majorities varying from 200 to 350. O. C. Skinner, J. Marritt and Jonathan Dearborn were elected to the house over B. D. Stevenson, J. Ii'win and Hans Patten, the district embracing Adams and Brown counties; H. L.

Sutphin was chosen state senator from Adams antl Pike, beating Archibald Williams five votes in Adams and much more in Pike. There was a good deal of interest over the election of circuit clerk and recorder. It was the first time this office had become elective. Abraham Jonas was the whig candidate and Peter Lott, I. O. W^)odrutt' and C. ]\I. Woods were in the field as democratic candidates. The day before the election the latter two withdrew in favor of Lott, who was thus successful over Jonas by 323 majority.

The presidential election in 1848 was marked by the earnestness and excitement which always attends these contests, but it ])ossessed a peculiar interest from the presence of a third factor in the field. This was the free soil party, with Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams as its candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. This movement operated powerfully in the northeastern states and to a lighter degree in the west, but it cut sufficiently into both of the two great parties everywhere to shadow the result with uncertainty. The close completeness of this canvass and the vote drawn out, is shown by the fact that at the state election in August the highest total vote cast in Adams county (now consolidated by reunion with Marquette) was 3,329 ; while three months later in November, at the presidential election, these figui-es i-ose to 4,488, out of which Cass, the democratic nominee, received 203 more than Taylor, the whig candidate. This majority was all nuide in the eity, the countj^ vote outside of Quincy being an exact tie between the two. Van Buren 's vote was 261. The election lay undecided for several days, and it was not until late on the night of Friday after the day of election, tli;it the telegraph brought the returns fi-cnn three southern states assuring the victory to the whigs.

The eity was made lively at once, but the result had been so long in doubt and each side was so hopeful that for awhile both parties were on the hurrah, and it took some time for them to unmix and the beaten ones to go to lied again. An odd little incident occurred in connection with this election. It was the fii'st election by ballot that had been held in the state, and the writer, with another, started out the day before to distribute the printed whig tickets at several precincts in the county, and voted at one of them on the day following. It happened that there were no Van Buren tickets there, and several sturdy democrats were present who had long looked to IMr. Van Buren as their political leader, and were desirous of voting for him. No one knew the names of the free soil electors, and we were called upon, but could only remember the two leading names. These we gave, and a ticket was written out, headed with Van Buren's name and these two electors only, which received some ten or fifteen votes. These were counted and canvassed, no exception being taken, a procedure that would not go through anywhere nowadays, unless in Chicago.

The first fireman's parade, of which the city has since had so many, came off on the -ith of July. It was a successful event. The two Quincy companies and a visiting company from St. Loviis formed the procession and participated in the contests. A pleasant episode occuri-ed on the 26th of October, on the occasion of the retirement of Judge Purple from the bench where he had so populai'ly presided for several years. It was the presentation of an address and resolution of regret to which the Judge feelingly responded, which was followed by a farewell banquet given by the members of the bar.

Chapter Xxvii Of Brooks And Bartlett. R.Ailroads

PURPOSES. PUBLIC READING ROOM. FEMALE SEMIN.A.RY ESTABLLSHED ON MAINE STREET. FINANCIAL. CHOLER.\. CALIFORNIA EIMIGRATIOX. J. JI. HOLMES. THESPIAN SOCIETY. PICKETT, THE FAMOUS CONFEDERATE GENER.\L. AN .AM.\TEUR ACTOR. POPULAR LECTURES. LIBRABY. SLANDER SUIT OF BROOKS AND BARTLETT. R.AILROADS

The vexed matter of the taxation of city property for county purposes became a matter of consideration and conference between committees of the city council and the county commissioners, but there was no result reached. At the November election the ciiiestion of adopting township organization for the county wa.s submitted and carried by a vote of 1754 to 453, every precinct in the county voting for the measure except Quincy, where the vote stood 228 for to 276 against, the Quincy vote being largely influenced by the belief of many that if the city became a township it would injure its chances of remaining as the county seat. This was unfortunate. Heretofore the estrangement between city and countj^ had been caused by the county seat quarrel. Now, and for nearly forty years after, there was added to this the issue of unequal taxation. That the Quincy people had some foundation for their fears is .shown by the fact that in December an effort was made to re-open the old county seat matter through an application to the county court to have the case reinstated. It did not, however, prevail.

The cause of most of the discordance between the city and county was an article in the first charter, passed by the Ijegislature. in 1840, exempting "the inhabitants of the city of Quincy ***** from any tax for county purposes, except for the completion of the county jail, now being erected in said city." This puerile provision quietly interpolated into the charter with the thought perhaps that somethiui;- might be gained thereby, attracted but little attention at first, but soon after proved to be a "Pandora's box" of evil and dissension. It was unnecessary, as subsequent history has shown, but it long served as a source from which prejudice, jealousy, per- .sonal interests, and political demagoguery could always make material for discord and strife. This is to a great degree now allayed, but it was throughout the lifetime of a generation and a half an ever festering soi"e.

A public reading room, which had been started late in the fall preceding, on cj^uite an extensive scale, flourished well through the early part of this year. Its rooms were on Fourth street, between Slaiue and Jersey, and it announced as having on its files over 60 newspapers. It was popularly patronized for a brief time, but, like several other institutions of the same kind in the past, its life was bi'ief, scarcely reaching into the second year.

Educational interests were roused by the comins' to the city of Miss Catherine Beecher, of the well-known Beecher family, who had devoted herself to the establishment of female schools. Under the stimulus of Miss Beecher 's prestige and presence much interest was awakened and at a public meeting on ]\Iay 31 the project was set on foot to establish a firstclass female seminary, many of the leading people giving favor to the enterprise. It contemplated an expenditure of $10,000 in ground, buildings, etc. The school was located on Maine, near the corner of Sixth street, and connnenced with high expectations. It was superior to any that had preceded it, but it finally went the way of the others, after a duration measured more by months than by years.

The annual fiscal statement for the year ending April 1, 1849, gave a clearer idea in its detail and summary of the financial condition of the city, than had been usually made in these periodical exhibits. From that it appears that the receipts into the treasury, from all sources had been, during the year, $12,718.92; while the expenditures during the same period were $12,217.88. The liabilities of the city were placed at $35,834.65, a large portion of which was the outstanding vouchers. The debt of the city, as suiuHi;irizt.'d in this statement, was: Treasury orders, .$24(j.:t:^ : bills payable. $25.- 056.19; vouchers in circulation. $1,927.39: total, $27,230.50. It was an important period in the financial record of the city, for the reason that during this year there came the first large demand for the i)ayment of the outstanding and matured city bonds, which now had to be paid or provided for in some way, and with this came also as the necessary consequence - Quincy's first experiment in "refunding." This became now a necessity and it was attended to later in the year, as will be told in its time and place, but it struck at a time when the city credit was at a very low ebb, and. of course, we had to pay for it. The current expenses of the past year were not large. The street appropriations were very small compared with those of earlier years, being but $2,711.15 ; the ferry, always an annoyance and expense, had cost $1.552.86 ; and the fire department liad needed $1,121.21. To these, add the interest account of $1,293.12, and all the chief items over $1,000.00 of expenditure are recited. Yet there were many minor exijeuses which swelled tlu> total of expenditure to an equality with the receipts, leaving nothing wherewith to meet the accruing debt.

^Iv. Oonyers. who was chosen mayor now for the third time, having been elected in 1842 and 1843 and a candidate for the same in 1844. He was a man of much personal popularity and usefulness as a public citizen. Beside the service he had rendered the city as mayor, he had formerly been one of the town trustees, and had also held other positions of public trust. It was his fate to die of cholera three months after his election, honored and lamented. He was the first mayor who died in office. There has been but one like occurrence since, W. T. Rogers died in 1880, near the close of his second term. The office vacated by the death of Mayor Conyers was filled at a special election, on August 20. when Samuel Holmes was chosen. Mr. Holmes had just been removed from the position of register of the public land office which he had acceptably filled. He was an enterprising and popular man, though an extreme partisan. No opposition was made to his election.

The change of administration by the election of Taylor as President in 1848, made the usual official changes here, whigs easily ad- .iusting themselves to the seats that had been for years past filled by democrats. Abraham Jonas became postmaster, succeeding Dr. S. W. Rogers. Archibald Williams was appointed United States District Attorney for Illinois. Dr. Hiram Rogers and Samuel Holmes, Receiver and Register of the public land office.

The city debt question occupied the attention of the council throughout the first six months of their sessions. At the first meeting on IMay 1st the subject came up and a resolution passed authorizing a loan of $20,000 and the issuing of an equal amount of bonds bearing six per cent interest. Some irregularities in the early proceedings, the death of the mayor and other causes, delayed the consummation of this project, altliough it was constantly liefore the council until Octt)l)er 26, when the order passed upon Avhicli the transaction was completed, and twenty "Special Loan Bonds" of $1,000 each, drawing 6 per cent interest, were issued and immediately purchased by Page & Bacon, of St. Louis, for eighty cents on the dollar, the council ratifying the sale. At this time (October) Mayor Holmes officially ]iublislied the entire corporation debt as amounting to $28,642.03. drawing six per cent interest, that $15,005.70 was now due, and that the city reveiuie was $13,500. In this statement he did not mention the property owned by the rily. wlii<'h would have fairly footed up 111 ail aiiiiiiiiil iiini'h over its indebtedness. The cily was then unquestionably solvent. Propositiuus looking to economy and limitation of cxpcnditui-es were made and to some extent carried out. Tlic salary of the mayor and of the city i-lcrk was fixed at $250 each, and like measures taken towards curtailment. This was an expensive year on account of the cholera which raged so fatally through the hot months, and the consetiueut depressiim cif business and other causes.

Tliis was a gloomy and depressed period for Quincy. as it was for nearly every other place in the west. Pestilence placed its paralyzing hand on all interests with a grasp and weight that can only be realized by those who have felt its dark experience. The conditions of sixteen years before were repeated, when, preceded by two sickly seasons of fever, the Asiatic cholera, decimated, within one week, the entire population of the little village, then containing between four and five hundred people. Many of the early settlers still vividly retained an apprehensive recollection of the sad scenes through which they had gone during that brief visitation of this desolating scourge. The smallixix. a more odious pest than the cholera, had in the winter and early spring prevailed to such an extent as to arouse public alarm and to call for the preventive action of the authorities, in the prescribing of general vaccination, isolation of the sick, establishing a pest house, etc. Its ravages had nearly ceased, when the moi'e fearful foe appeared, not unexpectedly.

Duiing the preceding year it had swept through the seaboard and lake cities and early in the spring developed itself in the ]Mi.ssissippi Valley, coming iipon Quincy like a lightning stroke. On Satni-day, ]Mareh 17th. five eases were reported, all of which proved fatal during the night and Sunday. Two of them were four miles north in the country, at ililler's or Leonard's ]\Ii]l. The other three were in the south part of the city. Only one more death occurred during this month, and none in April, thus giving hope that the blast had passed by, but with a like suddenness it reappeared on the 13th of ]\Iay, when five deaths were reported, and before the end of the month seven additional fatal eases occurred : yet on the 1st of June and for the following ten days there were none. But, with a deadlier stroke it returned for the third time, on the 11th of June, and from that time continued to increase in the number of cases and malignancy, up to the 4th week in July, when it commenced abating. About the fir.st week in September it finally disappeared.

How it affected public feeling and business is expressed by the Whig, which, in its issue of July 10th, says: "The sickness last week, and the increased number of deaths, seems to have spread a gloom over the city, visible in the countenances of all. It is indeed a trying time in the history of Quincy. All business in a measure is suspended. Our country friends seem to have deserted us, but few visit the city, and those only Avho are compelled to do so, to provide the necessaries for the harvest. Travel, to a great extent, on the river, is suspended for the present, and the packets now plying between this citj- and St. Louis are probably not paying expenses. How long this state of gloom and despondency is to last, the (Jreat Disposer of events only knows."

Two hundred and thirty-six deaths from cholera were officially reported as late as the latter part of August, when the disease had nearly run its course, but this record is defective, since many burials were unreported. The distinction between deaths from "ehoL era" and "other causes" was for reasons that will be understood, usually made to discredit the extent of the epidemic so as to allay apprehension. An addition of at least one hundred to the above figures would be not far from correct. The heaviest mortality was in the last week in July, when 44 deaths were reported, the total number reported for this month being 142, and the most deaths on any one day being 15 on the 29th.

Beside its free ravage among the immigrants it found a field among the families which, because of the unusually high water, were driven from the bottom lands, neai- the city, and had crowded themselves together in temporary homes. Therein was a feast for the pest. In one hoiTse, thus occupied, on Vermont street, eight died within three days. In a German family, on the corner of Jefferson and Seventh, consisting of eight persons, all died save one, an infant. It destroyed entire families. The wife of a well-known Magistrate. Prentiss, was taken by it and died on Monday. On Thursday the grave was opened for the husband. Dr. Stahl, the earliest German physician, who had more to do with the disease than any other, lost his wife and child almost at the same time. Dr. Barlow rode out to visit a patient, a mile east of the city, was there caught by the cholera and died, and in a week his wife followed him. The Mayor of the city, Enoch Conyers, a man of rather ranusual physical health and regularity of life, was suddenly cut down on the 21st of July. Rusk, a prominent Odd Fellow, died, "of cholera," and was buried by his lodge on the 23rd. Charles Gilman, a prominent lawyer, reporter for the Supreme Court, attended this funeral, officiated, and in the morning he was dead. No appreciation of the condition can be derived from description, nor can any words picture the general despondence of feeling. The morning enquiry was: "Who is dead?"

Singularly enough, during all this time, while tM-ice the epidemic had apparently left the city, it continiiously infected the steamboats i)lying the river. In early June, at a time when there were no cases in the city, a steamer - the Uncle Toby - passed up the river, landed here with three dead bodies on board and before it reached Rock Island there Avere twenty-four more added to the death list.

Public meetings were held to demand more complete sanitary measures, and the council ordered the examination of all strangei's coming into the city, appointed inspectors of health for each ward, made free appropriations, established a pest house, etc., but the disease had its own way. and it was proven that no measures can ever drive away this fell destroyer when preventive precautions have been neglected.

It is a cTU'ious fact connected with the cholera record of Quincy, a fact that perhaps may be worth scientific investigation, that on its first and second brief visits the victims were almost wholly strangers. Five of the six who died here in March and nine out of the twelve reported in May, were non-residents or newcomers, but on the third appearance in June, it struck equally at all classes of the eoinimuiity, although its ravages were more general among the German citizens. It then seemed to have thoroughly planted itself and pervaded the place so that neither vigorous health, regulai'- ity of life, careful precaution and avoidance of conditions which were supposed to invite the epidemic, were safeguards from attack. When it reappeared during the two following years of 1850 and 1851, though with far less fatal effect, the cases were isolated and in all ranks of society. This peculiarity led to the predi(!tion, favored by some very high medical authority, that the cholera had or would become a permanent disease of the ilississippi valley, as much so as it is reckoned to be in the valley of the Ganges, a prophecy which was dissipated by after experiences, and now is no longer regarded. Fright was the plague's best ally, as it was in 1832.

It is said that a prominent lawyer, who was afterward a supreme .judge and governor of the state, hearing, while at breakfast, that the "cholera had come," gathered his family and what of furniture he could hastily pack, and hurried away as fast as horseflesh could draw him, leaving his house open and the breakfast dishes still on the table. In many cases people fled in almost equal haste at this time, and it not infrequently happened that they took the disease with them. The spread of the epidemic was, however, slight in the adjacent porti(nis of the eonnty.

California Emigration

California emigration was the great all absorbing event of this year. The gold discoveries on the Pacific coats in the preceding year aroused and fostered a fever of excitement and restlessness such as the country had never before known and can never know again ; irresistible in its spread and permeating every class and condition of society. Though cupidity and gold getting wa.s the primal incentive, and the basis of this great movement, yet the activity of almost every other restless passion gave to it an added stimulus. Curiosity, the spirit of adventure, love of novelty, the contagion of that feeling which makes men rush in wherever others are, so started a swarm of hnman wanderers, such as on this continent will never again be witnessed. Flowing from every section of the land, the united adventuresomeness of the east, south and north poured itself in an increasing stream, across the great grass plains, and through the lone gorges of the rough rock mountains on the pathway to the promised land of gold.

Evei'y hamlet and nearly every home sent forth its wanderer, and with the earliest opening of spring the green prairies were whitened by the long caravans of wagons carrying with them hardy and adventurous gold seekers.

California was the connnon topic of thought and talk. The excitement of this unprecedented gold fever was i^niversal, infecting all ages, classes and conditions and reaching into every avenue and recess of society, enli.sting, not only the adventurers with nothing to lose, but also, making men who had secured permanent prospects and position, throAV aside business and profession, and for the time being abandon home attachments and duties, at the alluring beck of the golden wand.

The first to start from Qnincy was a party of nineteen, made np mostly of well-known citizens, who left on the 1st of February, going by the sea n)ute and across the Panama isthmus, some two months before the laud emigration across the i)lains began. The nineteen Avant Coureurs were: John Wood, D. C. Wood, John Wood, Jr.. Dr. S. W. Rogers, George Rogers, I. II. Miller, D. M. Jourdan, Aaron Nash, W. B. Matlock, David Wood, John McClintock, John Mikesell, (ieorge Burns, J. Dorman, J. J. Kendrick, 0. M. Sheldon, C. G. Amnion and Charles Brown. These familiar names ai'e given, as they illustrate the varied character of these emigrators, some almost boys and led, or rather headed, as they were, by two of the veteran ]>ioneers of the place. John Wood, its oldest settler, and Rogers, its oldest physician, who had both grown gray in Quiney, would seem to have been among the last to thus shake oif the settled comforts of home, and assiired position, won by so much of past toil, to, onee more, in after-meridian age, venture upon a wandering more wild than that of their early days. But as an experienced "Sucker" dame pithily expressed it, "They've tuk the fever like onto the boys and the old uns allers catch it the wust."

A special interest attached to this party as being the earliest to depart; an interest heightened by the rumor of their shipwreck in the ]\Iexican gulf, and their jjerilous adventni'es before they reached the Golden Gate, and because in their letters home, came their first personal repoi'ts of experiences in California. All but three of this party retui'ued within the next two years.

By far the greater portion, nearly all. indeed, of the " Calif ornians," as they were called, took the route across the plains. Their outfit and appearance was thus described by a local journal at the time "being usually composed of a train of half a dozen or more wagons with three or four persons to a wagon.

Several of the wagons were drawn by four mules, though the majoritj* of them were drawn by three or four yoke of oxen. All of them were fitted out in a sub.stantial manner, with every necessary- required for the trip, and take the men as a body, they are all of the goahead class, and will go thro' or "break a trace,' as the saying is."

Quite a number of those who left, with this complete equipment for the journey, met with misfortune by the way. from wagons breaking down, cattle dying, etc., and finally reached California, some on foot and some, a little better otf, riding an ox or mule. How many went from here and about here, cannot be told, but the number was large. Over '200 were reported as having gone from Quincy, which is none too high a figure. From the Mill creek section a party of 26 formed a train; about 40 went from the Lima neighborhood and from all sections around there was the same proportionate number. Among these, both from the city and county, were many people of prominence. Singly and in small parties the greater portion of them gradually returned, and but a few adopted California as a permanent home.

Of those i^ublicly known here who remained were D. G. Whitney, who for many years had been the leading merchant of Quincy; Dr. Wm. H. Taylor, one of the earliest and most successful physicians ; John L. Cochrane, a prominent teacher and former city clerk and surveyor, and others who found fortune or attraction in the new country which most of the adventurers failed to realize. The interest that attended the departure of these Californians did not cease with their going, but long continued, general and intense, not unlike, though in a le.ss degree, to that which attached to the movements of our soldiers diiring the Civil war, when the pulse quickened with evei-y telegraph tick that told of news from the front. Evei'.v item of information was now caught at with avidity, each personal piece of news from the west was presumed to have some word for all, and a Calif ornian's private letter to family or friend was considered to be aiul apt to become public property.

The winter of 1848-9 was uncommonly snowy and cold: the 17th of February being recorded as the coldest day remembered for many years. The river opened on the 4th of March and closed again on the 2.5th of December.

The resiunption of navigation in the spring in those days, before the advent of the "iron horse," was the commencement of trade and the event of the year, and coming as it did at this time on the 4th of March, the same day that the whig administration stepped into power, it afforded a good deal of pleasant chaffing among the politicians over this coincident date of improvement and prosperity. It opened booming high, and the great flood continued until late in the summer, giving a good boating stage of water until nearly the close of the year.

Old steamboatmen state that never in their recollection had the Mississippi opened at such a high stage of water, and at the same time so full of running ice. Owing to the long continued overflow of the banks, the ferryboat was compelled to make its landing across the river at LaGrange, and for many weeks was kept rimning night and day to that point, conveying the hundreds of California teams that went from or passed through Quincy on their westward journey.

The running out of the ice with such an unusual "full banked" river was a peculiar and attractive sight, such as is not often seen, and brought with it two curious accidents. The -steamer American Eagle, a Quincy boat, since it was owned and commanded by Louis Cosson, an old-time resident, had. with two or three other lioats, just arrived from St. Louis and laj' at the landing with "steam down." One of the other boats ran up the river, struck into the great gorge of ice which fettered the .stream about four miles above, and having broken it, turned about and came back post haste, followed by the avenging ice, and rounded up into the bay for safety. The movement of the ice as it steadily swept along after the flying steamer, was witnessed by many, and was very imposing. It stretched in an unbroken sheet from shore to shore, advancing at a pace so gradual, still and slow, that it seemed as if a touch of the hand might check or turn it, and yet with momentinn that was irresi.stible. Creeping on and on, it caught the luckless Eagle at the landing and lifted the large steamer as though it were a toy. shoving it high upon the bank with its outer side broken in. Pushing on yet fai'ther down, the relentless ice found a small stern-wheel steaml)oat. the Champion, lying at the foot of Floyd's Island, ju.st above the mouth of the Fabius. The captain, on seeing the ice on the way towards him, had nwored his vessel at the scnith point of the island with a cable on each bow so as to draw up the boat on whichever side of the i.sland the ice did not come. Unfortunate, it divided and came on both sides, crushing in the sides of his vessel and sinking her to the boiler deck.

A good story was told in this connection, of Capt. Louis Co.sson, a jovial Frenchman. He was not on board of his boat at the time, having gone up the hill to see his old friends and have a good time generally. John Martin

Holmes, clerk of the Ijoat, was asked why they happened to be caught in such a fix all unprepared, with steam clown, his answer was that the captain was up town and had taken all the steam that the boat was allowed to cai-ry.

These names of Cosson and Holmes suggest some pleasant memories of the personnel of our people in the past ; of the individuality of those who composed the community ; and whose daily doings shaped and colored social and public action. Each man, however he may be placed, is more or less a factor and feature in the general movement of all; contributing his portion of what furnishes the mateinal of history, his seeming unimportant nothings aggregate "the sweei)iiig surge of history." The life of the many individuals constitute the life of society itself. The life of an individual is often attractive and interesting in retrospect, and worthy of a place in local annals.

John IMartin Holmes was one of the men who was, in his own way. an in.stitution in Quiucy from 1S3S to 1850. He was a genius of high type : of intinite wit and luunor, gifted with a rare poetic faculty. He was the soul of enjoyment in every social circle, and the brilliancies that he constantly uttered were the repeated quotations everywhere, as what "John Holmes said." He was of a name and stock of genius, "kith and kin" to the famed Senator John Holmes of Maine: to Oliver Wendell Holmes: to the South Carolina Holmes, and to all of the name, who carry, wherever it is borne, the same brilliant characteristics of refined intellect and unsurpassed humor. Their ancestry all hinges back to a gifted Scotch clergyman, one among the pilgrim fathers, and who is traditioned as having in his time startled the staid puritan consciences by liis unseemly waggeries, as well as impressed them by his unquestioned piety.

Volumes could not record all of the ready brilliancies of John Holmes, but we call up one "yarn," suggested by the allusions to the cholera and to the accident of the Eagle, and, moreover, as it brings to mind the name of another patriai'chal landmai-k, who now past the age of 90, still preserves the bright racy geniality of spirit and fun that has happily attached to his long consistent Christian career.

Mr. Foote was in Cinciiniati in the summer or fall of 1849, and he met John Holmes, who oft'ered him a free trip to Quiucy on the Eagle, Avhich Mr. Foote declined. Tm'o years after this we saw a meeting of Mr. Foote and Mr. Holmes here in Quincy. Mr. Foote saluted the other with, "I am glad to meet you. Have you got any of that 'Moral Medicine' left that you recommended to me at Cincinnati?" Holmes' answer was in keeping, and after they parted we drew from him wliut was meant by the "iloral iledieine." He said that lie had offered Mr. Foote a free pass from Cincinnati to Quincy on the Eagle, but that the parson said, "No, it's Saturday now, and I never travel on the Sabbath : I shall wait here until ^fonday. " "Why," said Holmes, "I can fix all that: we've got left over a lot of cholera medicine that we used in the spring when we were down about New Orleans. It's got eveiy ingredient necessary. It's as stringent as the Saybrook platform and can put you to sleep better than a Congregational sermon. I can give you a dose of that to-night and put you and your conscience asleep until the middle of next week - clear past Sunday." Mr. Foote, however, declined, and it was this proposed prescription which he afterward referred to as the "moral medicine."

The i)opulation of the place, so far as nationalities Avere represented, had by this time, in 1849. undergone a most marked change. Already the foreign born, by reason of the rai)id inunigration of the ten preceding years, had become in nimiber at least equal to those who were "to the manor born." Among the earlier settlers there were more from Massachusetts, Connecticut and KentiTcky. than from any other states or sections ; the Kentuckians lieing more prominent, politically, as they were then and had lieen all over the state and the west, politics being the specialty of the Kentuckian, wherein he is only surpassed liy the Irishman. Prior to the town organization, in 1834, there Avere scarcely a .score of citizens of foreign birth. About that period a few German families made the place their home, and this innnigration continued. Shortly after, with the connnencement of work upon the state railroads, there was a very large influx of Irish, who permanently remained. For some years the Irish element of pojinlation outnum- I)ered any of the other alien stock, but the steady flow since 1838, directly hither from the "faderland." had by this time made the Germans to outninnber those of all the other nationalities. Still, however, as before stated, notwithstanding the predominance of the alien element in the mingled population, the conditions had as yet been but little changed or aft'ected. The city did not at all, as it now does, present tlie picture of a population more than half foreign in appearance and an ownership of property and transaction of business in a much larger ratio represented by citizens of foreign birth or extraction. This fact is evident not only from casual observation, but it is shown by the census statistics, which report Quincy as having in 1880, with a population of 27,268, 20,706 native born, and nearly one-

Such is the picture of Quiney a.s now (1886) exists, its dominating intiuences of sentiment, wealth and mimbers. It was not thus thirtyseven years ago, although the popular elements were relatively almost the same. The home-born or native portion of the people remained in rule; foremost in social, in business representation and in all else except politics. That power had been taken away as early as 18-10. and it has since been held by the naturalized citizens. This control was easily obtained for the reason that, until changed by the new constitution in 1848, a residence in the state of six months sufficed to give to any one. whether native born, or naturalized, or neither, the full exercise right of the elective franchise. And we know that there is no privilege for which men grasp more eagerly and clitJg to more pertinaciously than this.

At this time the people all knew each other; the interests of each were the interests of all; men mingled more together. Secluded during a large portion of the year, while frost fettered their communications with the oviter world, hibei-nated, as it were, they were thrown upon their own resources for occupation and enjoyment. The winters had to be passed through, and there were then no opera houses, dime museums, skating rinks, traveling shows : nothing from outside, for thej' couldn't get here, and hence society had to fall back on itself, and thei-e was then brought out, of course, "all the fun there was." The social assemblings, parties, tea drinkings, church gatherings, sleighrides, etc., passed away the time. Business was not as crowding and anybody could ' ' shut up shop ' ' for the day and go a-fisliing or somewhere else. There had been, a few years before, a quite popular and successful Thespian Society, whose semi-monthly exhibits furnished entertainment to the good people. It comprised among its members nearly all the then young sparks of the place, nearly all now dead. Cliickering. Taylor. Sam Seger. Hoffman, Grant. Dell Milnor and Pickett (the two last boys, who played the female parts), the later, Pickett, afterward the famed Condederate General. These were gay gatherings, attracting the attendance of all and vastly the more entertaining because of the intimate mutual acquaintance between the audience and actors. Of the biiskined stars who paraded on the .stage of mimic life and forced either applause or amusement from their friendly auditors, we believe, now remain Fes Hunt, T. H. Brougham and J. T. Baker. Wouldn't it be

Brief mention may here again be made of these weekly lectures, since they present a picture of what was going on and being done diiring the days of winter seclusion forty years ago, and also on account of the contribution they gave to the construction and support of what has now become a fixed and valued institution of the city. They constituted almost the sole source of available revenue to the public library. The lectures were home-made, prepared by our own citizens, with an occasional, though very rare, addition by some neighboi-- ing clergyman or by one of the Illinois College professors. They were given gratis, and upon such subjects as the writers chose. Some of them were of much merit, and if all were not so, yet all were attractive and well attended, and they fully served a pleasant, social purpose, as also the financial need, which they were chiefly designed to meet. The expenses were next to nothing. The use of the court house was free, and only lights and fire had to be provided, so that the winter course usually netted two or three hundred dollars, about the amount that in later years has been often paid f(n- a single address from some eminent professional lecturer. As a part of this reminiscence, herewith is given the lecture programme for the season of which we write, 1848-9. the list of lecturers and their themes, which M-ill convey an idea of the character of the mental food provided and recall also some familiar names. These were: John C. Cox, subject. "Progress of Civilization Since the Christian Era"; A. Jonas, "The Future Exemplified by the Past": Kev. Eollin Mears. "English Poets and Poetry in the 19th Century"; Dr. S. Willard. "Pneumatics"; Dr. R. Seeds, "Anatomy of the Eye"; T. Bronson. "Early Settlement of the Mississippi Valley": Rev. J. J. ]\Iarks. as Made for Man"; John Tillson. Jr.. "The Saracens in Spain"; 0. H. Browning, "Our Duties and Obligations in Reference to Aiiierican Slavery": Rev. H. Foote. "Yankee Character": Peter Lott, "The I'^pper Ten Thousand." All of these, except Dr. Seeds, a skilled Scotch physician, who spent an occasional season here, were wellknown residents. The prices of tickets were as follows: For a gentleman. $1.00; a gentleman and lady, $1.50 ; for a family of four persons, $2.00 : of six persons, $3.00 ; and from this was usually netted a few hundred dollai-s, which was devoted to the purchase of new books, and without which the library would have stood still. This is shown by its ninth annual repoi't on the 3rd of December. There were then, eight years after its establishment, but 86 shares sold, 78 stockholders, 1,574 volumes (of which 80 were circulating), valued at $2,123. Founded on donations and with a choice selection of books to begin with, it secured but little after-aid of this kind. Two hundred and fifty volumes wei-e added during this year, almost all purchased with the net proceeds derived from the winter course of lectures. The slow, struggling growth of the Quincy Library has been the same as that of nearly every similar organization elsewhere. Of all the beneficent institutions which appeal to public spirit and generous philanthropy for their creation and maintenance the public library is that which labors under the most diftieulty and has its claims last and least considered. C'hurches, colleges, hospitals, schools of science and art, secure benefactions from liberal living patrons, whose names are duly chronicled, or great bequests from departed millionaires, many of whom hope thus to atone for a life of greed by giving away that which they can no longer keep, but among these many objects of philanthropy the library profits the least. The reason for this is obvious. Interest, personal sympathies, conscience, custom and many another influence operates to point the direction of donations and bequests. But the library is exeepti(uial. The lover of books, if his wealth will warrant, prefers to perfect his own home collection, while the great ma.ss of those who use and benefit by the piiblic library has not usually the means to contribute towards its increase. The Quincy Library has now passed through a forty-fiveyear career of this natural indifference, and only now, within the past year, has it recognized and assured position, by the provision of a tax levy, devoted to its siTpport. The institution was pro.jected at a meeting of some ten or a dozen persons on the 5th of March, 1841, a constitution was adopted on the 13th and organization perfected on the 20th of the same month. It was opened to subscribers on the 18th of April and incorporated on the 4tli of October of the same year. At its first annual meeting, December 6, 1841, there was reported to be 735 volumes on the shelves, one-half of what it had now, eight and one-half years later.

Another weekly ii('\vsii;i|ier. the People's Journal, made its ajipcarance during the summer of this year. It was published by Louis M. Booth, a veteran editor now residing in California, who had made several ventures of this kind, but never vei-y successfully. The paper was short lived. It professed to be "independent in politics" and, of coui'se, followed the usual fate of such journals. To be "of independent thought" is very apt to l)e considered independent of thought, and very uncertain is the career of that newspaper which has not a political influence in caucuses and conventions and reaching its limbs and blossoms towards the pul)lie offices.

Much interest existed during this season over the temperance cause, with nearly as much excitement as that which accompanied the Washingtonian movement of several years before. This last had gradually subsided, but was now successfully succeeded by the organization of the Sons of Temperance. Weekly and largely attended meetings were held, and the accessions were numerous. The cause became customary and popular, so much so that most of the politicians joined for awhile. The universal apprehension of the coming cholera conduced to the advance of this nu)vement. The year was mai'ked also by an unusual degree of religious feeling and revival, stimulated probably by the same cause as above named. It is a notable fact that men are more neai-ly ripe for reformati(ui, most ready to abandon the follies and temptations of the visible world when wnthin the threatening shadows of the unseen. Either a tendency like this or to the other extreme of despairing, unbridled recklessness has been the attendant moral feature of all the ureaf plagues of the past.

The season was singularly backward; as nnich so as had ever been known. xVs late as the middle and latter part of April there were severe frosts and the ground w-as frozen for several days. Rather odd it was, however, that this late rasp of unreasonable cold left slight injury upon vegetation in contrast with what was naturally apprehended. Spring showed up slowly for several seasons. Planting was late and the acreage of the county fell off from that of former years. Not only was this caused partially by the varying weather in the early portion of the year, but labor was less plenty and the work on many farms was cni-tailed in extent by the California emigration. The withdrawal of so much of the agricultural force of the community could have no other result than this, since the larger portion of these emigrants were the young farmers of the country, and in some cases all the grown males of a family, father and sons alike, took the fever and went. Up to the first of .Tune 4,350 California wagons had passed llii-ough St. Joseph, bomid westwai'd; and this was but one of the half dozen crossing places of the Missouri river, and was but single file in the broad column of travel that from the lakes to

It may perhaps be best portrayed how things looked during this eventful year, chilled in its natural jirogress by the early and intermittent cold, dispirited by widespread sickness and death in high places, by quoting the lament of a veteran editor who blends his story of the season's slowness and the business depression, with his own personal mournings over the loss of all the pleasure that was "going to waste." lie was one of the best of the good men of Quincy (now gone, all honor to his memory), and withal a most devoted disciple of Izaak Walton, having done as miTch in his way toward the capture of the "finny tribe" as his son, S. P. Bartlett, now armed with a state commission, is striving to do, to "balance the scales" and to restock our depleted streams and ponds, which the father so enthusiastically "went for."

Thus moralizes the veteran Editor and Piscator in his paper on the first of May: "The weather the past week has been anything but pleasant and agreeable." The season, indeed, has been very backward, cold, sickly, gloomy and without any fun. Last year at this time the trees were out in their full foliage, and we had participated in one or two fishing parties. But this spring, the "Father of Waters" continues to run out brim full and a little over. He is on an awful high: seems to have swallowed up all the bars between Galena and St. Louis. Well! so be it. It can't be helped, but we do long to make a visit to one of our old fishing haunts, where, with a choice friend or two, we may while away the day in ".just nat 'rally" coaxing the finny tribe. Talk of the enjoyments of the town ! what are they compared Avith the i)leasure when sitting on a shady bank, with well-baited hook and line, and rod in hand, and not a sound to disturb the stillness of the scene, save the "woodpecker tap'ning the hollow tree" or the chattering of the solitary king-fisher, to suddenly hear the quick sound of the cork as it plumps below the surface with a pop ! as the minnow is seized by a voracious Pike, or Bass or Dogfish (the sneaking rascal). We imagine we feel him as we give him play ! Now here - now there - down into deeper water : and as the "iron enters deeper into his" .jaw, he lashes the water into foam with pain and vexation! Exhausted at last, he is drawn ashore!

"What say you. Pom & Co., C. M. Pomeroy, John Tillson, Geo. Bond and others. Dull show, isn 't it ? But we will assure our friends of the rod and line,

"The lakes and ponds are now full, and when old Mississip)pi withdi-aws within his banks, we may expect the sport to commence, and that sickness will yet abate and business hopes be restored.'"

Notwithstanding the unpromising aspects of the early part of this year, with its withering sickness and its late and light land tillage, the outcome was unexpectedly satisfactory. Production of all kinds, though not faii'ly up to the average increase of former years in quantity, was generally superior in quality, as is not unconnnonly the result of a backward season and a lessened extent of farm cultivation. Fruit was abundant, the grain yield was good, and most of it was safely harvested, thus creating a brisk business for the fall, sufficient to compensate for the didluess of the spring and siHumer months.

The provision business of LS4<^-!) had been steady and active. More pork had been "put up" than had been packed in the preceding winter, the rates running (juite regularly from atiout $2.70 to $3.00. Nearly an eciual amount of provision was cured during the winter of 1849-50, although the ])acking season opened very late and rather dull, the fii'st figures for pork being $2.25 and slowly raising afterward, but at no time eqtial to the prices of the ])revi(His winter.

Real estate rates varied but little dui-ing this year, and the changes of property ownership were not very many. It was reserved for the succeeding year, 1850, to exhibit the full commencement of a i-apid advance in land and values of every kind, which continued for several years, almost equaling the great speculative periods of 1835 and 1836. The price given for one well-known piece of property, at the time considered to be among the most valuable and salable lots in the city, will convey an idea of how property rated at this time. Part of lot 1, block 18, at the southwest corner of Maine and Fourth streets, 28 by 100 feet, with a three-story brick storehouse on it, was sold for $4,035 cash. At the same time the ground adjoining on the soiith, 40 feet front on Fourth street, and 99 feet in depth, was purchased for $640, $16 per foot. The varying values which attended the transfers of this piece of property are curious.

At the original sale in 1831, the entire lot, 99 feet on Maine, by 190 on Fourth, was bought of the county commi.ssioners for $18.25. It was early improved by Captain Pease and Burns, who successively owned it and erected on it what was about the best two-story frame dwelling house and store building in the place at the time, and it was half a dozen years later purchased and occupied by the Branch Bank of the State of Illinois. When this in.stitutiou failed, the property went to .sale, and in 1843 the north portion of it was purchased by A. T. Miller, nominally for about $10,000: but a.s this consideration was in the shape of the depreciated state bank paper, which had no fixed value whatever, it would be difficult to determine what it really sold for. The old bank building was then removed to the south end of the lot, and ;\Ir. Miller, an enterprising merchant from Baltimore, the bi'other of George A. and E. G. ililliT. Imilt on the corner what was then the lar.uest s1<ii-e-room in the city, a three-story brick, 100 feet deep, twenty-five feet front width on Maine, being the building which was occupied by the Herald office, Avlien destroyed by fire in 1870. On the death of Mr. Miller, the property was purchased as above stated, by S. & W."b. Thayer, for $4,- 035. Five vears later. 1854. it was again sold for .$15,000."

The telegraph line, which had been completed to Quincy, by way of Beardstown and Springfield during the preceding year, had not been under the O'Rielly management, operated to the satisfaction of all concerned. Of the local subscriptions on which the Illinois line was established, about !i>10,000 had been raised in Quincy and vicinity. A meeting of the stockholders was called and held, at Peoria on the lOth of April, and then there, imder the state law, a new company was formed and organized, into which was merged the O'Rielly stock and interest, and a different management was assumed. This was what has since been known as the Caton and Western telegraph company, which soon became exceedingly prosperous, as its predecessor had not been. The Quincy interests at this meeting were represented by Newton Flagg and Lorenzo Bull, the latter of whom was made a director in the new company. On an assessment of 40 per cent being ordered, to relieve the company embarrassments and carry forward its business, a large portion of the Quincy stock was allowed to be forfeited. The few who paid Tip this assessment and retained their interests eventually foimd the investment very successful and remunerative.

A quite exciting trial came off at the June term of the circuit court, which aroused all the political and no small amount of the personal feeling of the place. This has now passed away under the shade of nearly forty years, but it Avas a stirring event at the time. It was a slander suit broiighf by S. T\I. Bartlett, editor of the Whig, against C. M. Woods, publisher of the Herald. AA''oods and Austin Brooks were the Hei'ald proprietors, and Brooks was the editor who liad written the articles complained of, but the suit was brought against Woods as being e(jually liable and more personally responsible. It assumed a yet more sharp partisan character from the fact that most of the whig lawyers of the city were engaged for the plaintiff, and the democratic lawyers as generally took part in the defense; and also because the court was presided over by Judge ilinshall, who had just been elected to the bench, as the whig candidate, after a warm political contest at the first election when .iudges were chosen by a popular vote. His rulings, therefore, were often regarded on the one side as being the conclusion of party prejudice, and on the other sometimes thought to be timid from his fear that he might be suspected of too much leaning to the side of his own political faith. Judge ]\Iinshall was an able, honest and impartial man, but vei\y slow of thought and new on the bench, which made him sometimes appear wavering and undecided. A quick-minded, prompt acting man like his predecessor. Judge Purple, would have been far better fitted to handle such a ease at such a time, and escaped much of the unjust criticism that Judge Jlinshall received. The arguments of the lawyers, on the one side es])ocially, were almost like ]iolitical speeches, 'i'hc i-csult at the close of a contest running through several days was a nominal verdict for the plaintiff. This trial, while unimportant except as to local feeling, did, however, affect and illustrate some things well.

One result of this slander suit between Bartlett and Brooks was an improvement in journalism in its future assumption of a more coiu-feous character, and more creditable and l)roper tone than it had previously exhibited, which, with occasional exceptions, it has since nuiiutained. Editors discovered that the public regarded with no sympathy, but with positive aversion their parades of private griefs and personal abiise, which had become to be almost the sum total of editorial topic. Criticism and denunciation of the opposite party soon drifted into personal vilification of eacb other, and the result was that in s\ich cases the character of each contestant was lowered not more by what was charged upon him by his opponent than by the display that he made of the wor.st side of himself.

The public estimate finally jilaced upon what was said by these belligerent "knights of the quill," is shown in the story of the Quincy lawyer, who counseled against a suit for slander being instituted. "Why," said the angry would-be client, "he has abused me outrageously; he has said " "Pshaw!"

body, ami more than that, my good fellow, don't you know between ourselve.s whatever anybody may say against yon, no jniy would think of ponsiderins' slanderous?"

Hartlett and Hrooks were unusually superior men in their vocation. Well versed in local political and general public information, ready and trenchant writers, and each popular and trusted as a leader in his party. They represented, in sentiment and in character, the extreme views of the two parties of that day - the whig and democratic.

The pro.i'ect of a railroad coming into Quincy from the east, which had for years past been talked about by the bu.sybodies, thought of by the thoughtful, and about which so many public meetings had been held, came at last into a shape of certain advancement. The reckless and luckless experiment of the state originated in 1836, to cobweb itself all over with railroads, had resulted in only one thing observable, which Avas a huge debt that required fifty after years of exceptional taxation to pay, and nothing beside, except scattered over the state a great deal of incomjilete and worthless work. These and the ownership of road beds and franchises was all the .state and public had to show for the expenditures. The legislature wisely offered all these (except the debt) for sale. On the 6th of Augiist, at Springfield, sale was made by the state to James W. Singleton, Samuel Holmes, C. A. Warren, J. M. Pitman, H. S. Cooley and I. N. Morris, of all that part of the Northern Cross railroad lying between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, terminating at Quincy, for $100,000 in state securities, which were then at so low a depreciation that the cash consideration of the sale was really but about $8,000. This sale carried with it the ownership of the roadbed, etc., and all the franchise rights contained in the original charter. Much heavy and expensive grading had been done by the state on several sections of the line, some of which was subseqriently utilized, but in building the present road, a large portion of the old survey was abandoned, esjiecially that ])art which lies in Adams County.

It was the original design of the parties who had purchased this railroad from the state to obtain local subscriptions from Qitincy, and from Brown and Adams counties, and thus strengthened, to procure moneyed means from the east to carry on its construction. In fttrtherance of this plan, a meeting of citizens Avas called, and held at Quincy, on the 13th of October, and after some discussion which revealed the fact that there existed some dissatisfaction with the project in the shape in which it then stood, a committee Avas appointed to present tiie matter to "eastern capitalists," but from this nothing resulted.

On the '22d of October a company Avas formally organized, under the proA'isions of an act l)assed Fei). 10th. 1849, Avith I. N. Morris, as president ; Samuel Holmes, secretary, and J. M. Pitman, treasurer. Work was immediately ordered, a competent engineer, Wm. T. Whipple, and a corps of assistants, Avere engaged, and surveys commenced, resulting in the early establishment of lines A'aiying not very much from the original route. This organization did not, hoAvever, for some reason, meet the general sanction, and early in 1850, it was changed, and a year later changed again. A meeting, not largely attended, on the 30th of October, asked the county to vote a subscription of $100,000. Nothing came of this, however. This bi'ief sketch is the history of the beginning of the connection of this city with railroads, for Avhieh enterprises it has furnished nearly a million of dollars. The successive steps in 1850 and in 1851. AA'hen the city for $20,000 purchased the road, became its chief oAvner and subscribed $100,000, the first installment of the great debt above alhtded to, Avill be stated in their proper order.

There were several radical changes made during this year, in the system of county government - changes prescribed by the neAV state constitution, and by the legislature Avhich folloAved its adoption, all of which affected the subsequent etirrent of Quincy history. From 1825 to 1834, Quincy, though the county seat, Avas not more than any other hamlet or settlement (pi'ononnced in ancient sucker vernacular Avith the heaA'iest kind of emphasis on the final syllable) and its local goA-ernment, if it had any, Avas like that for the rest of the coimty, A^ested in the three commissioners, Avho exercised sitpervision and sway over all the corporate and internal interest of the county. The immediate local jurisdiction of Quincy, passed in 1834, AA'hen the toAvn Avas incorporated, tinder the control of the hoard of toAvn trustees: and six yeai-s later, in 1840, Avith the formation of the city, the municipal authority Avas vested in the city council, making the city somewhat peculiarly and almost entirely independent of the county authorities, and subsequent action made it more so. The ncAv state constitution of 1847-48 abolished the county commisisioners' court, and also the office of probate judge, proA'iding in lieu thereof, for a county court, composed of one chief and tAvo associate judges, clothed with full primary jurisdiction in all matters of probate, and "such other duties as the General Assembly may prescribe," connected Avith the administration of the county affairs. Here Avas a mueh-iiiiproved advance from the old county commissioners' court sj-stem, and the chief and best features of which have been retained and engrafted into the later and present constitution of 1872. Following' upon this con- .stitutional change, came tlie adoption of the township system, authorized by law and now prevailing in most of the counties of the state. To Quincy and Adams county the action unfortunately taken at this time about the changes in the form of county govei'nment, both in the reconstruction of the county court and in the adoption of the township system, induced a Pandora's box of trouble, which a generation's patience has ha rdlj^yet healed. The constitution of 1847 had conferred a blessed local benefit in its arbitrary reunion of Adams county, and thus treading out the dispute over a division of the county, but sore sectional feeling showed itself in a strife over the elections above referred to. The old county court had so much been the nursery where county quarrels were nurtured that to some extent these distrusts and estrangements entered into the choice of the new coi^rt, each party apprehensive of what might be the action of the new tribunal, vested with so much more power, and on the township question almost a clcjii' issue wns made between the county and the city.

The township system for locnl home government originated in New England, and gradually became adopted in some of the other northern states. The county court system was the plan universally in use in the southern states, and Illinois, which was originally a county of Virginia, had engrafted it in its state constitution of 1818. The former system is much the most advantageous and satisfactory, as it is more in harmony with the democratic principle of our institutions. It brings the machinery of local government nearer to the knowledge and control of the voter, making each town, as it were a little republic, the unit factor in the general governnumt, through M'hich local interests can be more effectively promoted, and better giTarded. Wherever it has been adopted, it has never been departed from and is gi'adually becoming the local system for the country.

It was optionally incorporated into our state constitution of 1848, and in April, 1849, a law was passed providing a plan and authorizing the counties to vote thereon. About half of the counties of the state, generally in the noi-thern part, embraced the new plan, and since then a large number of others have done so, and in no case has a county gone back to the old system. Adams county was among the earliest to vote for township organization, but it was a long time before it was completely established, and its history in connection with the county and Quincy is peculiar. In compliance with the law above-named, the Adams county commissioners, rather unwillingly, it was said, at their September session, passed an order to "the judges of election in the several precincts in said county, to open polls for voting for or against Township Organization, as provided liy the statute of Illinois, in force, April 16, A. D. 1849." The vote thus provided for was taken at the November election, and resulted in favor of township organization by the decisive majority of 1,301, in a vote of over 2,200, the significant fact being, that while every precinct in the county gave a majority for the measure, Quincy only, voted in opposition, more than half of all the minority votes thi'own against it lieing cast in the city.

As authorized by the above mentioned vote, the connnissiouers, on the 6th of December, appointed a committee to divide the county into townships. This committee reported in the following Alarch, 1850, the formation of twenty towns, with boundai'ies defined and names recommended, Quincy being one of them, having its Hunts the same as those fixed by the city charter. This report was adopted with the exception that in several instances, the names proposed by the committee were changed by the court at the request of the people of the township. Subse((uentl.y two additional towns, Mendon and McKee, were established, making the permanent sub-division of the county to consist, as it does at present, of twenty-two towns, inclusive of Quincy. The city, however, consistently with its vote of opposition, and to its own disadvantage, took no steps toward town organization, held no election for officers in April, and steadily refused to claim or have any representation in the Su- ])ervisors Board for twenty-five years, until 1874, when it came in with its representation of one Supervisor and Assistant Supervisors, to which by its population, it wa.s entitled. It was a singular fact that dui-ing all this period, at any time a dozen citizens of Quincy could under the law. have comiielled it to organize, or tlie Board could, on this default of the city, have appointed supervisors for it; but the wish of the city to keep out, was met by a willingness on the part of the county that it should stay out. Dignified diplomatic relations were maintained, however, between the two powers, and by formal treaty and agreement, Quincy, in consideration of its waiver of the right and responsibility of representation, annually paid in lieu thereof a stipulated sum towards the support of county expenses : at

At the regular election in November, which was for county officers only, and also for the vote on the township question, partly nominations were made and party lines were drawn. The political status of the county was uncertain. At the presidential election in the preceding: year, Cass, democrat, carried the county over Taylor, whig, by 203 majoritj-, but there was also a Van Buren, freesoil, vote of 261. It was the first election for officials of the new court, a judge and two as.sistant justices. The sensitive sectional distrusts before mentioned, and also .some personal issues entered into the election and broke the unity of pai"ty action. The democrats elected their candidate for county judge, Philo A. Goodwin, by a large majority, the two a.ssoeiates and the school commissioner. The Whigs elected J. C. Bernard, county clerk. 11 nd also the county treasurer.

It was over the election to the United States Senate, of a siiecessor to Sidney Breese, whose term expired on the 4th of March. His opponent for the caucus nomination was James Shields, who died recently, after having been the recipient of more varied distinctions than almost any other man of his day. The position which Adams county, with its large and able delegation to the General Assembly, might assume was important and indeed, largelj^ detei'- mined the result. Breese was the more learned, the abler and older piiblic man, having a political record of prominence as old as the state history, but he was not possessed of popidar manners or disposition and he had also fallen out with his junior colleague in the Senate, Douglas, then the rising man of the state, and already almost, as he afterward was, omnipotent in Illinois. Shields was a genial, magnetic man. of fair talent, and he presented himself to the people with the fresh prestige of Mexican war womids and honors.

The two a.spirants visited all sections of the state and Quincy with the rest. Breese here obtained an instruction in his favor to the legislative delegation from this county, but after the legislature had convened, a democratic public meeting, held at the court house, passecl reverse resolutions which in.strncted for Shields. The latter was elected, but on taking his seat at "Washington was confronted vnth the charge that he had not been nine years a citizen of the United States, which he really lacked by several months. This fact was well known at the time of his election, but it did not prevent his being chosen, although his rejection was a certain consequence. On failing to maintain his senatorial seat he appealed to the legislature at its .special session in October, and was easily re-elected. Time had now cured his disability. It is a singular fact that a strong factor among the many infiuences which conduced to Shields' success at this time, was his wellknown opposition to slavery extension (a question that had now begun to permeate all the politics of the land) and that it was his faithful adherence to his friend Douglas in 1854 on the passage of the Nebi-aska bill (reluctantly given, for he disapproved its policy), that prevented his renomination and threw him out of the line of political promotion in Illinois.

Among the exciting local events of the time was the murder of ilajor Prenti.ss, who was found dead in the street near the court house on Christmas eve, evidently killed. He was a well-known citizen, who had mingled much in local politics, and his violent death created a great sensation. Murders wei-e infrequent in those days, and whenever they did occur, the murderers rarely escaped detection and punishment, a marked conti-ast with the record of crime in later years. In this case, West, who was charged with the offence, was, in the following year, tried and sentenced to a threeyear term of service in the penitentiary.

With its period of wilting sickness and depression: the depletion from emigration: the doubtful early prospects of crops and dull seasons of business, latterly revived: the radical changes in public relations, this was one of the most eventful years of Quincy history: the more also it may so be considered because with the latter part of the year began a "boom" of prosperity : an advance in real estate values, in population, in business activity, which, rapidly developing in the following year, continued unabated for the next ten vears.

Fire. Two German Newspapers. Fall

The ice blockade of the winter of 1840-50 was of brief continuance. The river closed in 1849. on Christmas day, and opened on Januar.y 29th, giving good average navigation througliout the year, and not closing at all during the winter of 1850-51. The dreaded cholera which had so fearfull}^ scourged the city in the previous j'ear, returned, but its ravages were comparatively light. About fifty was the estimate of the total number of deaths. The exodus to California continued, notwithstanding that the returning pilgrims of the year before brought l)ut little to show for their venture, and generally gave dissuasive advice to those who were smitten with the gold fever ; but the report of a single case of success in the mines, no matter how doubtfid its credit, would outweigh all else, and the stream of treasure-seeking adventurers still unbrokeuly tlowed westward.

It was an observable and somewhat curious fact that of the hundreds who went from this section to California in 1849 and 1850, many more of the second-year emigrants made there their permanent home than of those who were of the year iireceding, and that among the number who have thus remained, the larger jjroportion came from the emigration of the county outside of the city. The second emigration was made up of a more stable element, and men moved away from their former homes with more fixed intentions and better arrangements, and a great many took along their families.

The i)ublic excitement was still at the full and the interest as rose-colored as ever, with that novelty and ho]ie which even at this long later (hiy attaches to every idea of California. Time had not at all tamed the early eagerness of adventure, and ail reports from the few who had as yet returned were accepted .just as the hearer wished. In one respect the interest had changed. Danger was no longer dreaded as attendant on the trip across the desolate, trackless, savage-haunted plains, or over the long tortuous ocean route, but an equal apprehension arose from the attested I'umors that cholera had Avaylaid and was doing fell ravage among the traveling trains.

Sickness and pestilence are the saddest of inflictions at home, but when they reach after the far-off wanderer, away from care and sym- ])athy and resources, they bring tenfold terroi's, magnified liy wild rumor and fancy. The cholera was fearfully fatal in places on the plains, though the stories of its progress were natiu'ally much exaggerated. A special anxiety was felt in Quincy. for the reason that with the earliest repoi-ts that the disease had broken out among the emigrants, came also the news of the death of Charles Steinagel, one of the most active and prominent German citizens of this place. Quite a luimber of Quincy and Adams county people died of this disease, but the conditions of the climate, the pure air and the idtitude of the countiy were repellants to the pestilence, which otherwise might have reaped a fearful harvest.

Among the now fixed institutions of the place, the Adams County Medical Society, as at present constituted, dates its origin in this year. Several attempts had been made by the resident physicians during the preceding ten or twelve years to form a local medical association, but the eft'orts were short-lived, and this was the only successful organization. It commenced with a membership of ten. Drs. Ralston, S. W. Rogers, Roeschlaub, IloUowbush, Wilson, Watson, Shepherd, Leach, Chapman and Elliott; all familiar names for many years in the past. Of these, all but three (Chapman, Elliott and Shepherd) were from the city, and now, thirty-six years after its formation, two only of the original members of the society survive. Dr. L. T. Wilson, of Quincy, and Dr. L. Watson, of Ellis. Kan.

The seventh national census was taken this year by E. H. Buckley and W. R. Lockwood, Deputy United States Marshals, appointed for that purpose. Pi-ior to this time, as prescribed by the constitution of 1818, a state census had been taken every ten years, intermediate to the time of the national census, for the purpose of apportioning the representation in the state legislature, which is established every five years: the framers of this first constitution, rightly foreseeing that with the I'ajiidly increasing jiopidation of the state, this representation would soon become uneriual and uncertain if dejiendent for its accuracy on the decennial federal census. This state census was taken in 1825-35 and 45, but the provision therefor, under the economic influences of the time, was omitted in the .state constitution of 1847, and also, imfortunately, left out of the constitution of 1873, so that every alternate readjustment of representation in the state legislature is now based largely on guess work.

The returns of this census, which was quickly and correctly taken, gave a population of 16,901 to Quincy, and to the entire county, the city included, 25,508. This placed Adams county after Cook and Quincy next to Chicago on the record as the most populous county and city in the state, a relative position which they maintained during the twenty succeeding years.

The private banking business of Quincy be- Kan with this year. After the suspension of the State Bank of Illinois, with its branch in Quincy. in 1842, there was for some years mi^ch difficidty in conveniently obtaining eastern exchange. This was an especial embarrassment to the mercantile business of the place. At certain seasons of the year, (.luring tax-paying time, some relief was afforded by the land agencies who at that period were drawing upon their eastern clients, and it was not an infrequent custom for the merchants to send to St. Louis, or even to the branch bank of the State of Missouri at Palmyra and there purchase drafts by which to remit and make their periodical payments to their eastern creditors. For a 3'ear or two before this time, 'Slv. Newton Flagg had been engaged in selling exchange in a quiet way, and his business grew so greatly that in the fall of 1S50, in partnership with Charles A. Savage, with whom afterward I. 0. Woodruff was associated, the banking house of Flagg & Savage was opened on the south side of Elaine street, between Fourth and Fifth, afterwards removed to the corner of Maine and Fifth, where for years was transacted a large and lucrative business. The house suspended in 1857. and resumed a few months later, but after a hai'd struggle of one or two years, tinally closed in 1860. It was the first permanently established private bank of the place. The earliest in date, liowever, was that of J. H. Smith and A. C. ]Mar.sh, who opened, on the 5th of ilareh, near the corner of Maine and Fourth, under the Quiiiey House, the "Farmers' and ilerchants' Exchange Company." It was not strong, however, and its existence was brief.

The temperance sentiment, which at this time was all pervading throughout the countiy, took possession of Quincy with a force unknown before or since. ]Many and large petitions were presented to the council protesting against the liquor traffic, and the granting of licenses therefor. In deference to these an election to obtain the wishes of the people was ordered to be held on the 9th of March. There was a singular accord of feeling expressed on this matter. The people, the politicians and the press worked all one way. The Whig. Herald and Joiu-nal vied with each other as to which should be foremost and mo.st radical in the cause, and the result was that out of a poll of 578 (being about two-thirds of the entire vote of the city) all but 45 votes were given against license, making a temperance majority of 488. The council immediately thereupon assembled and passed an oi-dinance forbidding the retail sale of liquor and also I'evoking the licenses ah-eady issued.

The proprietors of the Northern Cross Railroad held a meeting on the loth of February, and, after subscribing .$10,000 additional stock, reorganized the company by the election of J. W. Singleton, I. N. :\Iorris, N. Bu.shnell, N. Flagg and J.' I\I. Pitman as directors, with I. N. Morris as president : S. Holmes, secretary, and Ebenezer iloore, treasurer. The board gave notice that on the 1st of April the railroad company would take possession and claim the exclusive use of that portion of the roadbed lying within the city. A committee was appointed by the council to confer with the railroad company upon the matter. This property referred to was that part of Broadway west of Twelfth street extending to the river, which had been relinquished by the state to the city prior to the purchase of the remainder of the road by the railroa.I company. As the city's title was secure and the railroad company had really no use for the property claimed, action on the subject went no further. Subscription books to the stock of the road were opened on the of April to remain open for thirtj' days. No additional stock was taken. Prior to this period, about the first of March, the president of the road asked from the city a subscription of $150,000. It was not responded to. The time had not yet come. The engineers, Messrs. Whittle and Shipman, published two exhaustive and excellent reports of their survey, etc.. in which they estimated the value of the road as purchased at .$120,000. Farther than the labor of the engineers in their survey, no work of any consequence was done upon the road during this year.

The fiscal statement of the city for the year ending April 1, 1850, was a well-pi'epared and favorable showing. The amount of bonded indebtedness was reported as $33,373.43. of which .$20,000 had been created by the refunding operations of the past year, when by the issue of this amount of bonds, which realized, when placed on the market. $18,400, all the then matured bond obligations of the city were taken up and a balance of about $1,500 in cash, was left in the city treasury for "pocket money." It was a judicious, well-managed operation. All of the bonded debt mentioned above would mature consecutively during the next ten years. The outstanding vouchers in circulation amounted to $1,994.26, about the same as at the end of the last fiscal year, but there was at this time cash on hand to meet these liabilities. The total expenditures of the city for the past twelve months had been greater than during any preceding year, bi^t this was unavoidable, as, in addition to the natural increase of expense with growth, the year 1849 had made many and nnusual demands upon the public purse. The prevalent pestilence had caused the nuisance, poor house, pauper and other accounts to swell to a large figure, and there had been completed and paid for, during this year, one of the costliest improvements ever made by the city. This was the grading of Sixth street from Maine to Jersev. which involved the filling of a ravine twen-

At the annual city election in April there was no party contest. The democratic ticket, headed by Mr. Holmes, Avas successful over an independent ticket by a decisive majority; Holmes receiving 569 votes against 394 for R. S. Benneson. the independent nominee for mayor. At the same time, Amos Green and H. L. Simmons, democrats, were elected aldermen in the First and Second wards, John Wood only, in the Third ward, being chosen on the inde|)eudent ticket. The city council was decidedly democratic, and the organization and action for the year was i-adically the same. There had been an election held all over the county on the 2nd of April for town officers under the township law, now for the tirst time going into operation, but the city, though declared as one of the towns, decided not to bold an election.