Warren Township (part 2 of 5)

As has already been stated, ther miners at Gratiot's Grove, Shullsburg, Rountrees, and a half dozen other places, now known to be in Wisconsin, and extending away up towards Dodgeville (as is now), were included in Jo Daviess in the first establishment of election precincts. Jesse W, Shull was at one time a member of the County Commissioners Court, and the people up there bore their part of the early expenses of the county - their personal effects being taxed with the peopfe in the immediate vicinity of Galena, the county seat. As late as 1840, as elsewhere noticed, the people here were not fully satisfied as to their personal whereabouts, or else were ambitious for state capital honors, and in the Fall of that year a meeting of the leading citizens of Jo Daviess and other counties, was held at Rockford, to agitate the subject. We have been unable to find any written or printed account of the proceedings of that meeting, and come to the conclusion that the people finally concluded to accept the situation, and make the most they could out of the advantages afforded by their galena-filled hills.

Immersed in the first records of the county, we had well nigh forgotten a very important enterprise - the commencement of the publication of a newspaper by James Jones, called the Miners' Journal. The first number of the Journal was issued July 8, 1828, and was received with pleasure and satisfaction by the people. It was, we believe, the first newspaper enterprise undertaken in any part of Northern Illinois, Chicago not excepted. The Journal was a four-page paper, with four columns to the page, printed in long primer ,'and brevier type, and on coarse, heavy paper, now brown with age. Dr. Horatio Newhall, one of the earliest and best settlers at Galena, carefully preserved the files of this paper, and had them substantially bound, which - thanks to his son. Dr. E. G. Newhall - were placed at our service while writing up this history. The file is perfect from July 25, 1828, to June 12, 1830, and is the only file of that paper in existence. Unfortunately the first two numbers are missing, so that we are unable to present even a synopsis of the editor's salutatory or introductory address, but there is enough else in the two years the files cover to make the file a most interesting volume. Fifty years, lacking a few months, have passed since the Journal was commenced, but these fifty years have been so full of history - have worked so many changes - that an examination of the contents of this old file - this keep-sake of half a century ago - makes one almost believe that he is in another world.

Turning to number three of the Journal, dated July 25, 1828, we extract the following personal mention of one of the native representative men of that time:

WA-PO-NA, the principal chief of the Fox nation, remained several days in this town during the last week, on his return from a visit to the Indian village at Du Buque's mines. During his stay here he sat for his portrait at Mr. Berry's rooms. He was dressed in fine style, and Mr. Berry has succeeded with his usual happy talent in taking a very striking likeness of the "Prince." Wa-po-na resides on Rock River, is much respected by the Americans, and is universally revered by his nation. He was attended by ten or twelve of his principal braves. By his open address, the dignity of his manners, and by his unassuming deportment, he has gained the friendship of all who know him. He has once been at the City of Washington, and visited the President of the United States."

On the 10th inst., thirteen boats passed the^City of Jefferson on their way to St. Louis, laden with FUR, from the Rocky Mountains, the property of McKenzey & Co., a nd is supposed to be the most valuable cargo ever collected from that quarter. - Mo. Intel.

In 1828 General Jackson was a candidate for president, and the Journal printed both the Jackson and administration Adams electoral tickets :

"Senator for the district composed of the counties of Jo Daviess, Peoria, Schuyler, Fulton, Pike and Adams - R. W. Chandler, of Jo Daviess; John A. Wakefield, of do. ; Henry J. Ross of Pike.

" Representatives for same District. - John Turney, Jas. Nagle, James Craig, of Jo Daviess; Ossian M. Ross, of Fulton; Abraham Pricket, of Adams; John Orendorff, of Fulton.

Steamboat Register Departed

MARRIED. - In England, Francis GodolphinD'Arcy, Marquis of Calmarthan, son of the duke of Leeds, and heir apparent, to Lady Hervey, daughter of Richard Caton, and granddaughter of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.

But we can not copy into this history of Jo Daviess County all that we find of interest in Jones' Miners' Journal, for it is a great volume within itself, and full of historical information, all of which would be of interest. We will, however, have frequent occasion to draw on its columns hereafter, and will only copy one more item from its well-filled pages now. This extract is from the Buffalo (1ST. Y.) Journal, after receiving a copy of the Miners' Journal. The Buffalo editor wrote:

Miners' Journal. - During the past week we received the first number of a paper bearing this title, and published by Mr. James Jones, at Galena (lead ore). Fever River, to give which stream a " local habitation " proved no light tax upon our geographical stock of information. Any one could tell us what we well knew before - namely, that Fever River is among the lead mines, and in the vicinity of the Winnebago Indians; but all this did not locate the spot whence emanated the thrice welcome sheet we have mentioned. We resorted to all the Gazetteers within our reach, but no one recognized Fever River, and we searched some twenty different maps, including the last edition of Finly's great Atlas, with no better success. We then seated ourselves to read the entire sheet carefully through, in search of the place of its birth. By this process we learned that a court had been held in the County of Jo Daviess - but the map showed no such county, and we were again at fault. Persevering in our plan, we at length discovered that a " party of about one hundred ladies and gentlemen went on board the steamboat Indiana, at 9 o'clock A. M. (on the 4th of July), descended Fever River to its mouth and ascended the Mississippi about eighteen miles, to Fox Villagp or Dubuque's mines."

This was a great relief, but still we knew not upon which bank of the Mississippi to pursue our search. Finding there was a post-office at Galena, we resorted to the Postmaster General's list of these useful establishments, by which we learned that Galena is a post township, the capital of Jo Davies* County, and situated upon Fever River, in the extreme northwest corner of the State of Illinois, and, of course, upon the east bank of the Missis- sippi. The receipt of a newspaper from the heart of the boundless forests of the mining district is like that of news from a far-off country, and was as little expected by us as the Lake of the Woods Herald or Columbia River Gazette.

A history of Galena and the mining country around it, from its earliest settlement, is promised by a correspondent, to be given in future numbers of the Journal. This will require no antiquarian, we imagine, although the production will be full of interest, and will contain, we trust, facts by which the next compilers of maps and geographies will duly profit. It is stated in the sheet before us that the miners already occupy a territory of one liundred square miles, and that they are still extending their bounds, to make room for the flood of immigration that is constantly rolling in upon the settlement.

The Galena Advertiser, dated " Galena, Upper Mississippi Lead Mines, Illinois," was commenced July 20, 1829, by JSTewhall, Philleo & Co. - Horatio Newhall, Addison Philleo and Hooper Warren. Files of this paper from its first issue, July 20, 1829, to May 24, 1830, and of the Galeman from May 2, 1832, to January 2, 1833, were preserved by Dr. Newhall in the same volume with the Miners' Jou/nal, and embrace a record of events of half a century ago that is invaluable.

The Advertiser of the 22d of February, 1830, referring to the random survey of the line between Jo Daviess County and the Territory of Michigan, as ordered by the County Court, quotes from the report of Mr. D. R. Davis, who was appointed to that duty, as follow :

Assuming as correct, the latitude of Galena 42 deg., 22 min., 55 sec., ascertained from numerous observations by Lieut. Burdine, they started from the lower block house and proceeded north 8 miles, 15 chains and 38 links. The line as surveyed by Mr. Davis, strikes the Mississippi about eight miles above Dubuque's mines. Going eastward, it passes Firman's (formerly Tompkins') house and furnace, running along the northern base of the Sinsinawa Mound, leaving the whole of it in this county. The line passes through the Hardscrabble Diggings, leaving R. R. Young's house about 30 yards south of it. It crosses Fever River at the head of the Natchez race track, leaving Natchez in the Michigan Territory, and including the principal part of the New Diggings in this state. The line thence passes through Gratiot's Grove, including Joseph Paine's house, and leaving all Gratiot's buildings in the territory. Bunkum and the White Oak Springs are, of course, in Jo Daviess.

Thus, almost three years after the county was organized, its north line was established, and the miners and other settlers advised of their whereabouts. Until that time no one knew how far north the county extended.

Thus far the historians have exercised great care in following -the records of the County Court, in order that they might present to the readers of these pages a general summary of the labor necessary to put the machinery of the county in fall, complete and successful operation. With a few more general quotations from the early records of the county, and their pen will only place on record the more important events of the county's history, such as the build ing of the Court House, the history of the Agricultural Society, Adoption of the Township System, the Educational Interests, War Record, etc., etc.

Among the more important duties of the early County Commissioners was the erection of voting and justices precincts. As the reader may see by taking a map and tracing the boundary lines of the original Jo Daviess County, heretofore given, the territory embraces a larger extent of country than is embraced in each of several States of the American republic. To regulate and manage the local affairs of so large an extent of territory, was not a very easy task, but was a duty that required a good deal of skill and judgment. However, there were men among the miners and mechanics that had graduated from the farms and shops and cabins and old log school- houses of states older than' Illinois, that were just as competent to the task of- organizing order out of the chaotic confusion of Indian wilds, as were the college graduates who came after the pioneers had established the customs of civilization and introduced in the wilderness of the Upper Mississippi that enterprise and industry that developed the great agricultural and mineral wealth that made for Galena and all the lead-producing region of the Northwest a name and a fame co-extensive with civilization. To the sturdy sons of toil - the hardy miners, the strong armed mechanics who accompanied them, and their brave, heroic wives, who bartered safety and comfort in their girlhood's homes, for Indian dangers and probable privation and want, and not to the sons of rich men, raised in affluence and wealth, schooled in colleges and fitted for the profession of law or politics, and who came here long after the dangers and privations and hardships were over, belongs the honor of reducing the primitive wilds to a condition of civilization that is second to no other part of a common country. But such observations aside, and we turn again to the official proceedings of the local legislators of Jo Daviess County - the County Commissioners.

"Beginning at the mouth of Maria O'gee and running due east to the eastern extremity of Jo Daviess Co., thence south to the County of Peoria, thence west to the southwest corner of said county of Jo Daviess, thence up the Mississippi to the place of beginning."

" Beginning at Shannon's mills and running due east to the east ( ?) corner of Jo Daviess County, thence south to the Rock Island precinct, thence due west to the mouth of the Maria O'gee, thence to the place of beginning."

"To begin at Shannon's mills and run east to where the Apple River road crosses the east and west line; thence west to Lockwood's furnace (including the settlement at said furnace), thence on a west line to the Mississippi River; thence with the state line to the place of beginning."

" Beginning at Meeker's farm and running to Lockwood's furnace ; thence to Council Hill on the old road traveled ; from thence with the New Diggings road to the state line ; west to the Mississippi River to the line of the Galena precinct ; thence east to the placfc of beginning."

" Beginning at the Apple River road where the east and west line crosses said road from Shannon's mills; thence east to the eastern extremity of said county; thence north to the state line; thence west to the New Diggings (including the settlers on the east fork and on the head waters of Apple River); thence along the road to Council Hill; thence to Lockwood's furnace; thence to the place of beginning."

The wording of these orders is a little vague in some respects, and the location of some of the lines rather indifferently defined, but it must be borne in mind that a good deal of the territory included in these several precincts was entirely unsettled, so that it was a somewhat difficult matter . to establish " landmarks," and so locate them that every body could follow the boundary lines in their mind and know just where they started, what particular points they passed, or precisely where they terminated. Roads, in those days, were little else than trails, perhaps first marked out by Indian feet and" Indian ponies. The same lines could be established now so that every school-boy, almost, could readily locate every particular place within the precincts. Where then there were not more than twenty or thirty voters, there now are hundreds, and the waste places of March 30, 1830, are full of productive farms and the busy hum of industry.

June 8, 1830, John Campbell was licensed " to keep a ferry across the Mississippi River, opposite Dubuque's mines, on payment of eight dollars to the County Treasurer, and entering into bonds with good and sufficient security." He was permitted to charge fifty cents for crossing man and horse.

Then follows a long list of road orders, the granting of tavern license, etc. In fact, for several years a good deal of the time of the various sessions of the Commissioners Court was consumed in matters of this kind. Immigration was rapid, and there had to be places of entertainment. Provisions were scarce and high. The settlers could not afford, however hospitable and willingly inclined, to keep travelers scot free, and hence they were licensed to charge reasonable rates. These taverns were rude concerns - not grand structures like the De Soto House - but log cabins, and may be, had only one room. Or if they had more, they were low, side additions. Some times a cabin was built sufficiently high to permit sleeping quarters above. In such cases a common step ladder in one corner of the room afforded access to the room above, or just as like as any other way, the upper portion of the house was reached by a ladder on the outside in the " chimney corner." If tables in those days were void of elaborate bills of fare and the edibles to be found in " taverns " of more modern date, there was plenty of substantial, and what would now be called varieties. One old pioneer, Samuel Simpson, now in his eightieth year, and living in Elizabeth Township, who came to the state in 1832, told the historians that during the first fourteen years of his residence in Illinois there was no necessity for serving a single meal in his house without wild honey and either fresh or dried venison. All the streams abounded with fish of the choicest varieties ; wild turkeys were to be found in large flocks in almost every forest, and prairie chickens, pheasants, etc., were to be found in plenty.

Ordered, That the sheriff be charged with the sum of $610.27, that being the amount of the tax list for the year A. D. 1829; and that he be credited by the delinquent list for the sum of $49.66, and that he also have a credit for the sum of $581.11, the amount of the taxes for the year A. D. 1829, and the fines of Jonas ($30), Furguson & Gear's ($5), as assessed at the November term, 1829, of the Circuit Court for said county.

The next day, June 11, they ordered that all the county orders previously issued and redeemed by the treasurer should be burned, which order was carried out, and orders representing $2,242. 96J- were committed to the flames. A subsequent order recited this fact, as well as the names of the parties to whom the orders had originally been issued, and their various amounts.

Slavery once existed in Illinois. This italicized declaration may sound a little harsh to the ears of some of the readers of these pages, but it is a fact, nevertheless. A full reference to this condition of aftairs will be found in that part of this book devoted to the general history of the. early settlement of the Galena section of the Upper Mississippi or Fever River country, so that an extended reference to this u twin relic of barbarism " in this connection is unnecessary. As late as 1839, and perhaps 1840-'!. taxes were assessed against slaves or indentured apprentices, and by " indentured apprentices" the authorities ordering the assessment of taxes meant negro slaves. The subterfuge of "indentured apprentices" didn't remove the fact that they were as much slaves as were the negroes of the South, and that property was recognized in man. There yet lives in the City of Galena at least two (Swanzy Adams and his wife) - representatives of this "indentured apprentice" class ("what a whipping of the devil around the stump!") against whom taxes were levied as upon so many cattle, and from whose earnings and industry the assessment was collected. At last, however, the foul clot and stain upon our boasted freedom was washed out, and negro slavery exists no more.

In Book A, the first volume of the records of the County Commissioners Court, under date of June 30, 1830, two instruments of writing are recorded that are transferred to these pages for preservation to posterity - not only as a part of the early history of the county, but as a part of the history of a government whose fathers claimed it to have been founded upon the principle of freedom to all men, because all men, in their opinion, were created free and equal.

Col. A. Field to Arch. - Know all men by these presents, that Abner Field, of the County of Jo Daviess, Illinois, and by these presents do liberate and set free a certain black man now an indentured apprentice, named Arch alias Arch Davis, hereby releasing and exonerating the said Arch from all further service; provided, however, that the said Arch shall be compelled to work to the amount of at least two days in each week so long as he shall remain in the house of the said Field, and cohabit with his (the said Arch's) wife. The said Field is to furnish him with a sufficiency to eat, and to permit him to sleep in his kitchen, etc. ABNER FIELD. [Seal.]

Abner Field to Cherry. - Know all men by these presents, that I, Abner Field, do by these presents release and free an indentured woman of color now belonging to me, known and called Cherry alias Chaney, on condition that she, the said woman, will serve me for one year from the date of this writing, and permit herself to be taken to Kentucky or elsewhere by my giving bond and security for her return.

And so, one by one, where death or other causes did not intervene, were the "indentured apprentices" or slaves of Illinois emancipated from bondage and restored to the normal condition of all mankind. It is more than probable that the only survivors of this class of Illinois slaves are residents of Galena, where, overcome with years, they are watching and waiting for the summons to appear before that Master who is no respecter of persons.

September 8, 1830, the commissioners ordered that the next term of the Circuit Court be held at the house lately occupied by Hammett & Campbell, and that the sheriff cause the same to be prepared for that purpose, and that James K. Hammett be allowed the sum of thirty dollars for the use of the same. The house here referred to was a frame store room situated on Diagonal Street, not far from the present court house.

From September, 1830, until March, 1831, there was but little business to engross the attention of the commissioners, so that we find nothing in these months worthy of special mention. On the 9th of that month provisions for raising money to defray the year's expenses were considered, and it was ordered that an assessment of one half of one per cent be levied on slaves or indentured negro or mulatto servants, on pleasure carriages, on all horses, mares, mules, asses and neat cattle above three years of age, and on watches and clocks and their appendages, and on lead and hogs.

It is considered by the court that the sheriff of the county be permitted to release from taxation such lead as has been assessed for taxes for the year 1830, as may appear on the oath of the merchant or person with whom the same is stored, to belong to non-residents of this state; Provided, That, if the merchant or persons aforesaid do not consent by their oath to partition their individual lead from that, they, or either of them, may have in storage, then this order shall not operate as a repeal of any former order on the subject.

On complaint of Thomas Jordan, made April 29, 1831, the license of John Campbell, as ferryman between the Illinois side of the Mississippi Biver and Dubuque's mines, was revoked, because of Campbell having abandoned the undertaking. The same day license was granted to Mr. Jordan to keep a ferry at his landing (now Dunleith), upon payment of five dollars to the county treasurer, and giving security for a lawful discharge of a ferryman's duties. Jordan's was the first licensed ferry at that point.

During the Summer, Fall and Winter of 1831, there was no business of an extraordinary nature to claim the attention of the local legislators. Settlements had extended to various parts of the county, and immigrants were coming in, selecting claims and settling down to their improvement. For the balance of the year the sessions of the County Court were taken up, for the most part, in the ordinary business of the county - granting road views, tavern licenses, selecting grand and petit juries, etc. In the Spring of 1832* the Indian "War came on, and all kinds of business, public and private, was almost entirely suspended. That war was vigorously prosecuted, the Indians subdued and a permanent peace conquered. September 6, of that year, a part of the volunteer militia for the suppression of the Indian rebellion were mustered out of the service at Galena, and the army disbanded. On the 8th the commissioners were in session and the county business again taken up. Among the other business of that session, an order was entered allowing Dr. Newhall fifty cents for each visit to the poor and diseased, Dr. Newhall to furnish his own medicines. The other business of that session, as of the remaining sessions of that year and up to March, 1833, related solely to ordinary matters. On the 12th day of March, for the first time, so far as the records show, an assessment of taxes was ordered against ferries. At this time there appeared to have been only four ferries within the county - at what are now Dixon, on Rock River, Rock Island, Galena, and Jordan's (between the present sites of Dunleith and Dubuque). On Dixon's ferry a county tax of $15 was levied; on Foley's Galena ferry, $12 ; on Barrel's Rock Island ferry, $10.

The subjugation of the Indians, in 1832, removed all apprehension of Indian dangers', and the people settled down to earnest, hard work. New plans were marked out by those engaged in the mines, by those who were making farms and by those who were charged with the management of county affairs.

Early in 1833, six years after the county machinery had been set in motion, the necessity of permanent quarters for the county offices came to

History Of Jo Daviess Ootjntt

Ordered, That the clerk of this court be, and is hereby, authorized to contract with Charles Peck for his house, if it can be obtained on the following terms, viz. : For one hundred and twenty dollars a year, for 3 years, payable in two equal payments, the first to be paid in June, and the other in December of each and every year, the house to be put in good repair by Mr. Peck ; the said payments to draw six per cent interest from the time they become due until paid.

The Peck House here referred to, was a large frame structure and stood on the ground now occupied by the De Soto House, and with the exception of Comstock's storehouse, was the largest in Galena.

Ordered, That the house of Peck & Heath shall be the Court House for this countv, during the continuance of the lease ; also, that the several clerks are requested to keep their respective offices in the said house.

December 27, 1834, Messrs. Charles Peck, H. Newhall, andE. Charles submitted a plan and estimate for a jail, which was satisfactory to the Court, and it was ordered that public notice be given in the Galenian- and Northwestern Gazette, inviting sealed proposals through the office of the county clerk (where plans and specifications could be seen), until the first Monday of March following, for building the said jail according to the plans proposed. The site for the proposed jail was on the southwest corner of the public grounds, between Main and Bench Streets, on the (then) late residence grounds of Amos Farrar. The jail was to be completed by the first of December, 1835, one half of the contract price to be paid when the building was put under roof, and the balance when the building was completed and accepted, good security to be given for a faithful performance of the contract. The building of the jail as contemplated by this order was never commenced. Some difficulty was experienced in the purchase of the necessary lot on which to build it, and it was not until the ground on which the county buildings were subsequently erected were secured, that a jail was completed.

The following is an itemized exhibit (and the first on record that we have been able to find), of the receipts and expenditures of Jo Daviess County, for the year ending Dec. 10, 1834.

Receipts Recapitulation

About this time the people and the county authorities began to agitate the question of purchasing grounds for public buildings, and on the 9th of March, 1835, the County Court

Ordered, That Abraham Hathaway and Elijah Charles (two of the County Commissioners at that time) be appointed agents, on the part of county to execute a note from the county to the commissioners appointed in a matter of petition between George Davenport and others for the payment of nine hundred dollars for a certain lot (of ground) in the town of Galena, bought for the purpose of erecting public buildings thereon.

The following day (March 10), an entry was made from which it appears that James Bennett, Rivers Cormack and W. B. Green had been duly authorized to purchase a lot of ground in Galena as a site for a court house and jail. Bennett had purchased a lot known as the " Connolly lot," for the use of the county, but had taken the deed in his own name and had given his note with security to James Craig, Horatio Newhall and David G. Bates, commissioners for the sale of the said lot, for the sum of nine hundred dollars, and it was ordered that Bennett be required to deed the said house and lot to Jo Daviess County, and in default thereof suit was directed to be commenced against him. The same day an order on the County Treasurer was directed to issue " to Charles Peck for what money he may have to advance on a note executed to James Craig, Horatio Hewhall and David G. Bates, commissioners appointed in a matter of partition between Davenport and others, of certain real estate," etc. On application, Bennett refused to deed the property as required in the order of the 10th of March, and suit was ordered to be commenced against him in the Circuit Court.

Some time subsequent to the adjournment of this session of the County Commissioners and prior to a session held on the 22d of April, a proposition was made to the Court by Charles Hempstead in regard to certain grounds for public buildings, which the court, at the date just quoted, agreed to take under advisement until the next term, June 13, when it was

Ordered, That a writ of injunction be applied for to stop proceedings of certain commissioners appointed at a late term of the Circuit Court to set off the dowry of Mrs. Sophia Farrar, in a certain lot of ground (recently purchased by the county at a Commissioners' sale), known as the Connolly lot, situate in the Town of Galena.

Suit against Bennett had been commenced, and the finding of the Circuit Court was adverse to the interests of the county, and on the 6th of September, 1836, it was

Ordered, That an appeal be taken to the Supreme Court from the decision of the Circuit Court at its late session (Jo. Daviess County TS. James Bennett), and the Clerk of the Commissioners Court is authorized to employ Jesse B. Thomas, William Thomas, and Henry J. Galewood, as counsel.

September 8, 1838, John W. Foster was appointed to take possession of the lot then in possession of Sophia Farrar, and on the 8t)i of December, 1838, a quit-claim deed was directed to be made to Sophia Farrar to lot No. 52, on Bench Street.

While these proceedings were going through the courts, the County Commissioners and public-spirited citizens were busy maturing plans, looking to the erection of a court house, jail, etc. After Colonel Strode seized, tore down and removed the jail erected in 1830, and re-erected it as a block house at the beginning of the Black Hawk war, in 1832, there was no place for the confinement and safe keeping of prisoners until the erection of the present brick jail on lot No. 17, block No. 24, in 1838. During these years rooms were rented, and men employed at the expense of the county to guard prisoners, the expenses of which were very heavy.

At a special term of the County Court, in October, 1835, a " petition was ordered to be forwarded to the Congress of the United States for the avails of the sale of 640 acres to be laid off into town lots at Galena, to go for the benefit of the county in lieu of pre-emption right to 160 acres granted to county seats located on Congress lands, and that a letter be addressed to the representative in Congress on the same subject." The county commissioners at this time were James Craig, Abraham Hathaway, and E. Charles. This petition seems to have been favorably considered by Congress, for in 1836 that body passed the following act relative thereto, entitled " An Act to amend an ' act authorizing the laying off a town on Bean River, in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes,' approved fifth February, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That all acts and duties required to be done and performed by the surveyor of the States of Illinois and Missouri, and the Territory of Arkansas, under the act to which this is an amendment, shall be done and performed by a board of commissioners of three in number, any two of whom shall form a quorum to do business; said commissioners to be appointed by the President of the United States, and shall, previous to their entering upon the discharge of their duties, take an oath or affirmation to perform the same faithfully and impartially.

SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners shall have power to hear evidence and determine all claims to lots of ground arLsing under the act to which this is an amendment, and for this purpose the said commissioners are authorized to administer all oaths that may be necessary, and reduce to writing all the evidence in support of claims to pre-emption presented for their consideration ; and when all the testimony shall have been heard and considered, the said commissioners shall file with the register and receiver of the land office at Galena, for the lot or lots to which such person is entitled, the receiver shall grant a receipt therefor, and issue certificates of purchase, to be transmitted to the General Land Office, as in other cases of the sale of public lands.

SECTION 8. And be it further enacted, That the register and receiver at Galena, after the board of commissioners have heard and determined all the cases of pre-emption under the act to which this is an amendment, shall expose the residue of lots to public sale to the highest bidder, after advertising the same in three public newspapers at least six weeks prior to the day of sale, in the same manner as is provided for the sale of the public lands in other cases ; and after paying to the commissioners the compensation hereinafter allowed them, and all the other expenses incidental to the said survey and sale, the receiver of the land office shall pay over the residue of the money he may have received from the sale of lots aforesaid, by pre-emption as well as at public auction, into the hands of the County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County, to be expended by them in the erection of public. buildings and the construction of suitable wharves in the Town of Galena.

SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners appointed to carry this act into effect shall be paid by the receiver six dollars each per day, for their services, for every day they are necessarily employed.

From March, 1835, to March, 1836, a period of one year, there is nothing on the record out of the usual routine of county business. March 15, of the year last named, the following assessment was made against the several ferries within the county for county and road purposes:

September 10, 1836, the County Court offered a premium of one hundred dollars for the best plan for a court house, and thirty dollars for the best plan for a jail, to be presented at the December term of the court (first Monday in December, 1836), the probable cost of the court house to be $40,000, and of the jail, $10,000, and directed the county clerk to advertise for the same through the Galena newspapers and the St. Louis Republican, the advertisement to be inserted weekly in each of the above named papers for eight weeks.

A number of plans were presented to the commissioners at their December term (Thursday, the 8th) and after having examined and considered all of them carefully, the plans presented by Charles H. Eogers for court house and jail were thought to be superior to any others, and were consequently adopted, and the award offered in the advertisement was paid by an order drawn on the county treasurer.

April 19, 1837, the county clerk was directed to advertise through the columns of the Northwestern Gazette and Galena Advertiser for sealed proposals until June 1, for building a jail according to the plans adopted as above. This jail, as shown elsewhere, was completed in 1839.

This year (1837) a financial panic swept over the country and very materially interrupted the plans, purposes and undertakings of the people. There was a general cry of " hard times," and many promising business men were stranded by " shrinkage in values." Charles Peck, county treasurer, either out of his goodness, of heart and mercy for tax payers, or for some other cause, failed to make an assessment, and on the 7th of September the county court ordered suit commenced against him on his official bond for such failure. Thomas Drummond, now a prominent U. S. Judge, but then a young lawyer of Galena, was retained on the part of the county.

The records of the Circuit Court show that the suit was commenced at the Fall term thereof, and that on the 19th of October the defendant (Peck) filed a demurrer to plaintiff's declaration. On the docket for the July term, 1838, under date of the llth, this entry appears: "After argument by counsel, court takes time." There, so far as the judicial records show, the case terminates. Some of the surviving citizens of that period

History Op Jo Davies8 County

As yet there was no way of raising money to defiay the expenses of the county, except from taxes levied upon personal property. During the fiscal year ending on the first day of March, 1839, the legitimate expenses of the county were $11,408.16, and the receipts from all sources, $8,114.80, leaving a balance against the county of $3,293.36.

The following statement shows the real condition of the county from the first day of March, A. D. 1836 to the first day of March, A. D. 1839:

The large excess of expenditures over the receipts, as shown in the above statement, is owing to the purchase of a part of the stone building on Main Street, known as the Dowling building, for the uses of a court house, etc. On Thursday, the llth day of January, 1838, the county commissioners

Ordered, That for the purpose of providing a suitable court house and offices for the County of Jo Daviess, as required by law, the county commissioners of said county, on behalf of the same, having contracted with John Dowling for the purchase of a certain lot or piece of land in the town of Galena, being part of an extra lot of ground known and described on the town plat as lot No. 36, on the east side of Main Street, and containing thirty-three feet and two and a half feet of the adjoining lot, No. 37, together with a part of a stone building erected on the same, bounded northeast by the center of the wall dividing the entire building into two parts or tenements, under one roof; southwest by lot No. 35, owned by P. F. Scheimer; in front, by Main Street; and in the rear by Commerce Street, making the premises contracted for 35% feet in front by 120 feet in depth, more or less.

And the said John Dowling, having given his obligation for certain additional improvements in the building, it is thereupon ordered by the court that, on said John Dowling and wife executing to the county a good and sufficient warranty deed for said premises, warrants, in sums as desired, on the county treasurer, to the amount of sixteen thousand dollars consideration for the premises, be issued in favor of said John Dowling, in the usual form, to bear six per cent interest from the first of March next.

At a special term of the County Commissioners Court, held on the 12th of September, 1837, an order was entered which shows that the building had already been used for holding a session of the Circuit Court, for it was

Ordered, That John Dowling be allowed $150 rent of house for Circuit Court, June term, 1837, and that W. H. Bradley be appointed agent to contract for the removal of the court room from the second to the ground floor.

Ordered, That W. B. Green be appointed agent for the County of Jo Daviess to lease such part of the Court House as was not needed for the uses of the Court or officers ; also, that said Green take charge of the Court Room and offices, when the same shall be fitted up according to contract pending, and be authorized to contract for the use of the Court Room to the Episcopal Church at the rate of $200 per annum.

The Dowliug building continued to be used as a court house until the building and completion of the present one. The counters, shelves, etc., that were in the building when it was purchased were disposed of by Thomas Drum, appointed to that duty by an order of the county court, also dated September 12.

At the same time the County Commissioners were contracting for the purchase of the Dowling property, it seems they were arranging to build a house for the same uses, for at a special meeting held on the 12th of September, 1838, it was ordered that W . B. Green " be allowed $225, for money paid C. S. Hempstead on note for court house lot." At was also

Ordered, That John L. Slaymaker and Samuel Mazzuchelli (a Catholic Priest) be appointed agents to superintend and oversee the architectural work which will be required in the building of a new court house for the county.

It is a little difficult for an ordinary mind to see the economy of paying $16,000 in county paper, for a house for county uses, while at the same time arrangements were being perfected for the erection of a court house building. The warrants paid to Dowling were not worth more than one third of their face value, and it is said they finally found their way into the hands of Pittsburg iron dealers, who, in after years, when the county had grown into good condition, financially, collected from the tax-payers their full face, together with the accumulated interest. This debt was not settled until some time in 1856, when, by order of the Board of Supervisors, and at the request of the holders of the warrants, smaller orders were issued in exchange for the larger ones. They subsequently fell into the hands of Nicholas Dowling, but were paid up in full.

Retrospective. - It is now necessary to go back a few years in order to bring up some details that have a bearing upon the grounds occupied by the county buildings. As previously stated Galena was laid off in 1836. The first act in relation to the matter was entitled " An Act to authorize the laying off ' a town on Bean River, in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes,' " and was approved February 5, 1829. Section two of this act provided that it should be the duty of the " Surveyor to class the lots already surveyed, in the said Town of Galena, into three classes, according to the relative value thereof on account of situation and eligibility for business, without regard, however, to the improvements thereon, and previous to the sale of the said lots aforesaid, each and every person, or his, her or their legal representative or representatives, who shall heretofore have obtained from the agent of the United States a permit to occupy any lot or lots in the said Town of Galena, or who shall have actually occupied and improved any lot or lots in the said town, or within the tract of land hereby authorized to be laid off into lots, shall be permitted to purchase such lot or lots, by paying therefor, in cash, it' the same shall fall within the first class, as aforesaid, at the rate of twenty-five dollars per acre; if within the second class, at the rate of fifteen dollars per acre; and if within the third class, at the rate of ten dollars per acre : Provided, That no one of the persons aforesaid shall be permitted to purchase by authority of this section more than one half acre of ground, unless a larger quantity shall be necessary to embrace permanent improvements already made."

July 2, 1836, an amendatory act (already published) went into effect, and on the 7th of July, 1836, under Yan Buren's administration, appointments were issued to Daniel Wann and John Turney, of Galena, and General Samuel Leech, of Quincy, as commissioners provided for in the amendatory act of July 2, 1836. The following is the form and wording of the appointment :

SIR - I am instructed by the President to inform you that he has appointed you, in conjunction with Gen. Samuel Leech and John Turney, Esq., a Commissioner, under an "Act to amend an act entitled an act authorizing the laying off a town on Bean River, in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes, approved the 5th February, 1829" - a copy of which act I herein enclose you.

" The Commissioner of the General Land Office will be directed to give you all necessary instruction to enable you to proceed in the business of the appointment.

Levi Woodbury Daniel Wann, Esq

GENTLEMEN : - By this day's mail there has been transmitted to you separate letters from the Secretary of the Treasury, notifying you that the President had appointed you Commissioners to carry into effect the provisions of the Act of the 3d instant, " to amend the Act entitled An Act authorizing the laying off a Town on Bean River, in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes, approved 5th February, 1829," and enclosing copies of the Act under which you are appointed, and which, in connection with the original Act of 1829, defines the duties required of you.

By the Act of 1829, it was provided that a tract of land not exceeding 640 acres, at and including "Galena," on Bean River, should be laid off, under ihe direction of the Surveyor General at St. Louis, " into town lots, streets and avenues, and into out lots, having regard to the lots and streets already surveyed, in such manner and of such dimensions as he may think proper," the town lots not to exceed one quarter of an acre each, and the out lots not more than two acres each. It being also provided that a strip of land of proper width on the River, and running therewith the whole length of the Town, should be reserved from sale for the public use and as a common highway. A plat of the survey, when it is completed, was to be returned to the Secretary of the Treasury. By the 2d Section of that law it was made the duty of the Surveyor General to divide the lots " already surveyed " into three classes, according to the relative value thereof, on account of situation and eligibility for business, without regard to the improvements made thereon, and previous to the public sale of the said lots, any person, or the Legal Representative of any person who had, previous to the date of that Act, obtained from the agent of the United States a permit to occupy any lot or lots in the Town of Galena, or who had previous to that date actually occupied and improved any lot or lots within the Town or within the limits of the tract so to be laid off, was permitted to purchase such lot or lots by paying therefor in cash if in the 1st class at the rate of $25 per acre; if in the 2d at $15 per acre; and if in the 3d at $10 per acre; provided, that no one person should be permitted to purchase by the authority of that section more than one lialf acre, unless a larger quantity was necessary to embrace the permanent improvements which had been made previous to the passage of this law. By the 1st Section, no Town Lot could be sold for less than $5. Under this law it appears to me :

1st. That in making the resurvey the Surveyor General was obliged to be governed " by the lots and streets already surveyed," or in other words, by the lines of the lots, streets, etc., which had been previously run under the restriction however of the first proviso that no Town Lot should exceed one quarter, nor no out lot more than two acres.

3d. That the right of purchase prior to the public sale only vested in such persons or their Legal Representatives, as had previous to the date of the Act obtained from the Agent permits to occupy any lot or lots, or as had previous thereto occupied and improved any such surveyed and classed lots.

4th. That not more than one half acre can now be entered by any person or his Legal Representatives who obtained such permit, or who had so actually occupied and improved a lot or lots, unless an additional quantity is necessary to embrace the permanent improvements made previous to the date of the Act, and then only such quantity as may be necessary to include them.

5th. Where a permit was obtained for any Town Lot or lots exceeding a quarter of an acre, or for any out lot exceeding two acres, or where any such lots were occupied and improved, not exceeding two town lots of one quarter of an acre each, nor more than one Jialf acre of any out lot can be entered, and the out lot must necessarily be subdivided so as to restrict the entry to that quantity, unless indeed, as before mentioned, it is necessary to exceed that area to embrace the permanent improvements, when such addition only is to be made to the half acre as may be required to include them.

6th. The Act specifies the minimum price at which any Town Lot, and the minimum rate per acre at which the classed lots are to be sold ; for the out lots not so classed, no minimum is affixed, and therefore they are to be sold for whatever they will bring at auction. By the Act of the 2d instant, the duties required to be performed by the Surveyor General by the Act of 1829 are to be performed by you as a Board of Commissioners, and in so doing you will be governed by the principles above mentioned, as well as the following instructions : After taking.llie oath of office prescribed by the law, which is to be transmitted to this office, you will give public notice of the day upon which you will commence the investigation of claims under the 2d section of the Act, and JTOU will keep a full and accurate record of all the evidence which may be offered in each case, and after having the Town surveyed in the manner required by the Act of 1829, designating the squares and lots by separate and regular series of numbers, you will file the evidence in each case, with your decision thereon, with the Register of the Land Office, accompanied by your joint certificate in favor »f each person entitled to a pre-emption, designating the lot which he is to be permitted to purchase ; these certificates should be regularly numbered and an abstract thereof transmitted to this office. In all cases where the right of entry is claimed under a permit from the Agent of the United States, the production of such permit, or of satisfactory evidence of its loss or destruction, and precise contents, must be required ; and where the claim is based upon actual occupancy and improvement prior to the 5th February, 1829, satisfactoiy evidence of such actual occupancy and improvement prior to that time is indispensable. The affidavit of the claimant is in no case sufficient.

In making the survey of the Town, you will employ a competent and faithful person, who should be duly sworn, and you are authorized to allow him a fair and reasonable compensation for executing the work and making the required plats showing the designation, boundaries, and area of each lot. One copy of this plat is to be furnished, as required by the Act of 1829, to the Secretary of the Treasury, and another copy is to be furnished to the Register of the Land Office to guide him in selling the lots. The field notes of the survey must be deposited with the Register. Any reasonable contingent expenses (but not clerk hire) which may be incurred in carrying this Act into effect will also be allowed and paid by the Receiver. I send for your information and guidance a copy of the plan of the Town as laid out under the direction of the agent cf the War Department.

The Act fixes your compensation at Six Dollars each, per day, for every day necessarily employed in the discharge of your duties, and you should therefore attach to your respective accounts a certificate that you were necessarily employed, in discharging your duties under the law, the number of days charged for. I am, very respectfully, your obt. servt.,

Ethan A. Bkown

August 20, 1836, two of the commissioners, Daniel Wann and John Turney, appeared before Samuel Smoker, a justice of the peace, at Galena, and subscribed to the oath of office as required by the law under which they were appointed. They then proceeded to business by notifying the commissioners of the General Land Office that they had organized, rented a room for the use of the commission, etc., and that the services of a clerk were indispensable, and that they had appointed Samuel Smoker, Esq., to that position. James Craig was appointed surveyor, he being in possession of the only field notes ever taken of the first survey in 1826-'7. August 25, the commission

Ordered, That notice be given by publication in the Galenian and Northwestern Gazette, that the commissioners have proceeded to survey the town of Galena, and that said notice be inserted for three weeks.

The commission also ordered " that suitable rocks, at least three feet in length, be procured, six inches of the top of them to be dressed and a hole half an inch deep drilled in the top as a point to measure from ; these to be planted at least two and a half feet deep, with the top projecting above the ground at the commencement of each division of the town of Galena; and that at every station or change in the course of the streets, a rock shall be planted at least two feet in the ground, to perpetuate said angular point, and that each lot shall have wooden stakes drove at the corners, and that the front stakes on the streets to be marked with the appropriate number of the lot, and that all the measurements shall be horizontal, and with suitable leveling stones," etc., etc.

On the 26th, William B. Green, George W. White and John C. Bond were sworn to "faithfully measure and return a correct account of the measurement of the lots in the Town of Galena," etc. October 5, the commissioners (having adjourned on Saturday the 17th of September to Wednesday, October 5) "ordered that notice be given that tne commissioners will be prepared to receive testimony on Monday the 17th instant, relative to claims to lots on the prairie from No. 1 to No. 46 ; on Monday the 24th instant, on all the lots between Main and Bench Streets, as far as Moses Meeker's garden, and on Monday the 31st, on all other lots included in the old survey, or within the limits of Galena, and that the Board of Commissioners would sit from day to day until the testimony was all taken."

Thus it will be seen that the first evidence of claimants of lots was heard on Monday the 17th of October, 1836. The commissioners journal of proceedings is preserved among the records of the Circuit Clerk's office, and an examination of its pages reveals some curious phases of human life. In many cases there were exciting contests between claimants, and all sorts of testimony was given. As claims were passed upon, certificates were issued to the rightful claimant, and were filed with the Register of the Land office of the district, where the land or lots were entered. As the net proceeds of the sales of lots, etc., were to be paid over to the county commissioners of Jo Daviess County to be used in the erection of public buildings,

* Mr. Leech did not qualify and appear as Commissioner until the 7th of February, A. D. 1838. Up to that time the business of the commission was conducted entirely by Messrs. Wann and Turney.

the improvement of wharves, etc., the order of the county commissioners requesting the Recorder of the Land Office to receive any money current in Illinois at the time, from the holders of pre-emption certificates to lots in Galena, is easily understood. At that time gold and silver was the standard currency at the U. S. Land Offices, and the object of the county commissioners was evidently to help the miners, mechanics, laborers and other citizens of the Galena of 1836 secure their homes with such money as might be in circulation here at the time.

The services of the pre-emption commissioners were continued from August 20, 1836, to March 29, 1838 - about one year and seven months. Their last meeting was held at the date last written, when the following entry was made :

It appearing that all applications for the right of pre-emption have been decided, and the decisions entered of record, it is ordered that the board adjourn.

In closing their official labors as commissioners for laying off the Town of Galena, etc., the undersigned state that they entered upon the discharge of their duties with much diffidence, arising from the novel and multifarious character of the claims they had to adjust and the rights they had to determine. They could find no precedent to guide them nor any general rules that could be applied to the cases arising under the law. Nor was it in their power to establish any. They consequently gave a liberal construction to the law and judged of every case according to its intrinsic merits, without regard to strictly legal technicalities. The course they have adopted, and the decisions they have made, they are proud to believe have met with the hearty appreciation of a great majority of their fellow citizens.

It is very evident the commissioners intended to append their signatures to this closing order, but for some reason unknown to the writer they failed to do so.

September 10, 1836, soon after the pre-emption commissioners entered upon a discharge of their duties, the county commissioners, being in session,

Ordered, That the commissioners for laying off the Town of Galena be requested to have reserved for public purposes that portion of ground on the prairie on the bottom between the cross streets running by Bernard Dignan's and Lawrence Ryan's, and in the rear of the tier of lots on Main Street, to the river ; also any portion of the ground on what is called Meeker's Point, as may not belong to individuals.

This request appears to have been granted, for on page 40 of the preemption record the commissioners Wann and Turney say that " after mature deliberation, it is ordered that the lots on the prairie extend back from Main Street one hundred and twenty feet, and that a street of seventy feet wide, parallel thereto, be laid out, only making the angles on the cross streets, instead of the blocks, and that the residue of the ground between this street and Water Street be divided in its center, one half fronting on the street laid parallel to Main Street, and the other half fronting on Water Street, and that the square back of Benninger's and Ryan's be reserved for public uses, in conformity with the request of the County Commissioners Court of Jo Daviess County."

[The lots covered by the above order of the pre-emption commissioners are known as and described on the plat as No. 61, 62. 63 and 64. These lots were all entered by the president of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Galena, July 23, 1838. September 18, 1839, lot No. 62 was mortgaged by the Board of Trustees to William Tiernan for $200, which mortgage has never been satisfied, but remains unpaid, and, of course, is " outlawed." They are occupied by the market house.]

History Of Jo Davie8S County

March 20, 1838. Present, Samuel Leech, John Turney, Daniel Wann. The County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County claim lot No. 64, above Meeker's, on behalf and for the benefit of said county, and in support of said claim produced a regular permit granting the same to the County Commissioners of said County, dated June 28, 1828, and signed by M. Thomas, Sup't U. S. lead mines. The Commissioners are therefore of the opinion that the County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County and their successors in office for the erection of public buildings are entitled to a pre-emption to said lot No. 64 above Meeker's for the use and benefit of the county aforesaid. Said lot fronting 134 feet on Gratiot Street, and running westwardly 217 8-12 feet, containing .669 of an acre of the first class. Certificate issued " March 28, 1838. Present, Samuel Leech and John Turney : The County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County claim lot No. 52, between Bench and Main Streets, and in support of said claim produced evidence that the same was occupied and improved in the

Sars 1827, 1828 and 1829, by John Connelly, together with a deed from said Farrar dated ay 22, 1829 ; also, an instrument of settlement between Amos Farrar, Russell Farnham and George Davenport, by which said Farnham and Davenport became joint owners of said lot with Farrar; also, a deed executed by James Craig, Horatio Newhall and D. G. Bates, Commissioners appointed by the Circuit Court of Jo Daviess County, at a public vendue ordered by said Circuit Court, for the sale of certain property belonging to the said Farrar, Farnham and Davenport, to James Bennett, dated January 7, 1834. It appearing, however, by a certified copy of the record of the County Commissioners Court of Jo Daviess County, filed in this case, that the said James Bennett "bid off" the same lot at the public vendue above mentioned by direction and under authority of the Commissioners of the said county, for the uses and purposes mentioned in said record - that said James Bennett received from said county one hundred dollars, it being the sum required to be paid down by the terms of said sale - that the said Commissioners have taken up the note given by the said James Beqnett, to the said Craig, Newhall and Bates, Commissioners in " partition " aforesaid, for the balance of the purchase money (nine hundred dollars) for said lot.

The Commissioners are therefore of the opinion that the County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County are entitled to a pre-emption to lot No. 52, fronting 104^ feet on Bench Street, and running eastwardly 116 feet, containing .257 of an acre of the first class. Certificate issued.

Lot No. 51, center addition was entered by Thomas Fox, aad by the administrator of the estate of Thomas Fox was conveyed to Thomas Drum. September 29, 1838, Thomas Drum conveyed it to the commissioners of Jo Daviess County. Drum also conveyed to the county the lot (No. 17, block 24) on which the jail is situated. Lot No. 52 was entered by Nathaniel Head, and after one or two changes of ownership, was conveyed to the county.

Court House and Jail Redivivus. - Having traced up the origin of the title to the court house grounds, we return to the erection of the jail and court house. There were no records to show that the jail was built under contract, nor was there any person to be found who remembered the particulars attending its erection. There are several orders, however, made by the county commissioners that leave the inference that it was built by diiferent mechanics, laborers, etc., under the direction of an agent appointed for that purpose by the county. For instance, September 13, 1838, a draft on the " cash fund of the county for $2,000 was ordered to issue to William H. Bradley, to be expended as required for the erection of the jail." The same day, W. B. Green was allowed "fifty dollars for his services as agent for erecting the county jail," and " Hughes & Co. were allowed $500 out of the cash fund for quarrying stone for jail foundation." At the same time "Thomas Drum, Abel Proctor and Elijah Charles were appointed to superintend the erection of the jail." This last order indicates the removal of W. B. Green as agent for the purpose. These several orders indicate pretty clearly that the jail was not built under contract. The plans presented by Rogers and approved by the court, as heretofore mentioned, were carried out, and the jail so far completed in 1839 as to be tenantable. It was not fully completed, however, as shown by an order of the Commissioners Court passed June 11, 1841, which provided for the appointment of Abraham Hathaway as agent " to complete the jail, now in an unfinished condition." No resident ot Galena could be found by the historians who remembered the name of a single mechanic - stone mason, brick mason or carpenter - who was employed on its erection. Neither were any records to be found showing to whom money was paid for the purpose, or how much. The money ($2,000 already quoted) was directed to be paid to Bradley, and it is presumable that he paid it over to tlie workmen, and hence the fact that their names do not appear in the records.

The court house appears to have been built in like manner. March 9, 1839, it was "orMered (by the county commissioners) that Thomas Drum and Abel Proctor (now of Wright County, Iowa,) be appointed agents to superintend the erection of the court house, with full power to make and enter into contracts for the erection of the same, and to do all other acts and things which to them shall be deemed necessary for the prosecution and speedy completion of the said court house." The same day it was further "ordered by the court that William H. Bradley be appointed agent for the county to pay all bills certified by the agents of the county, of the laborers and contractors for work done in and about the erection of the court house, and to keep a correct account of all money paid, and all and every expense attending the erection of the same, and to make report of the same to the agents or to the court when it shall be required."

Of the many mechanics, laborers, agents, and others who bore a part in the erection of the court house, not many are now living. William H. Bradley, who was clerk of the County Commissioners Court at the time, and financial agent, is now clerk of the Circuit and District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois. Abel Proctor, one of the county commissioners mentioned, is a resident of Wright County, Iowa, and is in the eighty-third year of his age - hale, hearty and active, and as straight as an Indian. John L. Slaymaker, now an old man, lives (near Albany, in this state. Richard Darigan, who, with John Hughes and Michael Gannan, made the excavation for the foundation walls of the court house, still lives in Galena and is court house janitor. He is an old man now, but hale, hearty, active and trustworthy. Hughes and Gannan are both dead. Andrew Telford (a brother of John Telford, who did the carpenter work) then a journeyman carpenter, helped to roof the building in the Spring of 1840 - the year after he came here to join his brother John, and has ever since continued to make (galena his home. If the others of their associate workmen are alive, their whereabouts is unknown.

It is remembered that there were some complaints from tax payers against what they conceived to be mismanagement and extravagance on the part of some of the managers or agents of the court house building. Rev. Father Mazznchelli, who, with John L. Slaymaker, was appointed engineer to superintend and oversee the architectural work, was not backward, it is said, in his denunciation of the management of some of the authorities. Whatever grounds there may have been for these charges, it is certain that, notwithstanding the amount of money given to the county from the sales of the Galena town lots (amounting, as Mr. Daniel Wann thinks, to about

$18,000 * cash) the county treasury was so depleted that it became necessary to borrow money to complete the undertaking. December 4, 1839, the County Commissioners

Ordered, That the Senator and Representative of this district be requested to use their influence to have a special act passed by the legislature to authorize the County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County to mortgage real estate belonging to the county for the purpose of raising money in order to finish and complete the court house; and that the clerk forward to them a copy of this order.

An order of March 14, 1840, shows that the authority sought through the means of a special legislative enactment was granted, for on that day it was ordered that John Atchison be appointed an agent to negotiate a loan and to mortgage real estate belonging to the county as security therefor. From subsequent orders, it appears that the loan was effected, and the Dowling property so mortgaged as security. By an order made on the 14th day of May, 1840, Atchison was also authorized to mortgage lots numbered 51 and 52 (in so-called Centre Addition), fronting on Meeker and Bench Streets, and the new court house, in addition to the old court house. March 5, 1841, it was "ordered that John Atchison, commissioner, negotiate a loan for the completion of the court house, appointed by an order of this court at the March term, 1840, be requested to make a report to the next term of this court, of the amount of the loan effected by him, of the amount advanced by him from said loan, either to the order of the County Court or their agent, and of all -his acts under said agency."

In pursuance of an order of this court at the March term thereof, 1841, John Atchison, Commissioner to negotiate a loan for the completion of the new court housef made his report, which is accepted by the court and ordered to be recorded, and is in the words and figures following, to-wit :

Gentlemen : - Under the authority of your court of the March term thereof, 1840, as commissioner to negotiate a loan for the completion of the new court house, I borrowed of Richard H. McGoon, on the 16th of May, 1840, seven thousand dollars, at ten per cent interest, payable annually, for which I mortgaged to Mr. McGoon lot No. thirty-six (36), part of lot No. thirty-seven (37), on Main Street, Galena, lots on which the old court house stands, and also lots fifty-one and fifty-two in Centre Addition, so called, on which the new court house is erected, of which sum I have paid out as per account rendered herewith, $3,427 02

John Atchison

* A letter from Mr. Bradley, under date of " Office Clerk Circuit and District Courts, United States, Northern District of Illinois, Chicago, February 15, 1878," after referring to the fact of Congress providing for the " laying off a town on Bean River, in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes," the appointment of pre-emption commissioners, and their duties, etc., says : " The proceeds of the sale of lots, after the payment of the expenses of the commission, amounted to $35,000, which was paid over to the county commissioners by Col. John Dement, receiver of the land office then located at Galena." If this statement is correct, and Mr. Bradley ought to know, the people and tax-payers of 1878 will wonder why the necessity of borrowing money by mortgaging the Dowling property and the lots on which the court house stands, together with the new court house, to complete a building that ought not to have cost more than $25,000, at the most. If Mr. Bradley's figures are correct, the court house did not cost less than $60,000, or $65,000, as any one can see by following up the records and figures quoted.

Without attempting to follow up in detail all the orders, specifications, etc., of the county commissioners, their agents and others, in regard to the erection of the court house, suffice it to say, that, by the time the stone and mason work was completed, the money was all exhausted, and the building was left in an unfinished condition for several years. It was finished, however, in 1844. Captain Abner Eads, then a county commissioner, had been very active in his efforts to complete it, and personally superintended the removal of the offices from the old Dowling building.

The tablet over the entrance to the court house credits its erection to to the year 1839. It ought to be made to read " Commenced in 1839, and completed and occupied in 1844."

The McGoon loan, negotiated by John Atchison, by mortgaging the Dowling property, etc., was not fully settled until the year 1848. At a special meeting of the county commissioners held on the 24th day of January, of that year, the matter came up for consideration, and a final adjustment was effected. The debt was created by a special act of the Legislature, as heretofore mentioned, and another special enactment became necessary to help the commissioners out of the difficulty. The second special act authorized the imposition of a special tax for the payment of the mortgage held by McGoon, which mortgage was made under authority of an ac of the Legislature, passed January 18, 1840.

On the 16th day of April, 1844, there was due on this mortgage $5,041.50, and there was to be issued in payment for the interest due or to become due on said mortgage, $504.15, which orders were to draw six per cent interest (subsequently increased to ten per cent). The commission ers ordered that the sum of $1,650 " at present collected under said specia tax be paid over to said McGoon, in part payment of the principal sum o said mortgage," and the treasurer was further ordered to pay to the sak McGoon the moneys to be collected under the special tax. McGoon agreec to continue to take orders in payment of the interest, and whenever the principal should be paid, McGoon agreed to release the mortgage and hole the orders for interest, merely like any other creditor. The county com missioners agreed, on the part of the county, " to pay such orders given and to be given for payment of interest, with ten per cent interest on sak orders, free from all objections of want of consideration, etc., etc.; it being expressly understood that this settlement is final and conclusive settlemen forever, binding between the county and said McGoon. If the payment o the principal sum shall be made on said mortgage on or before the 16th o April, 1848, then the present year's interest is to calculated according to law, and an order for such sum is to be issued bearing ten per cent interes as heretofore. If the said principal sum is not so paid, as aforesaid, then the interest due on the principal which may not be paid at that time may bt liquidated upon the same principle as heretofore laid down.

October 3, 1843, the county clerk was ordered to advertise for bids for furnishing the court house, according to plans on file, to be paid in order on the county treasurer at fifty cents on the dollar. [See p. 212, County Commissioners' Record, No. 1].

New York

On this day John Atchison r endered vouchers for payments made by him on account of the McGoon fund, amounting to the sum of $280.06, which were allowed by the court, and said Atchison is to be credited with interest thereon in final settlement on his account from the date of said payments respectively. Said allowances were as follows, to-wit :

July 6, 1844, a contract for plastering the court house was awarded to S. A. Rarnbo and J. B. Deneber, the contract to be completed " in time for the sitting of the next term of the Circuit Court, on the third Monday of October, 1844; and September 4, 1844, D. Hinkle was employed to paint the wood work of the court house, and have it in readiness by the next k' term of the Circuit Court, on the third Monday in October next."

Poor House

An examination of the records of the County Clerk's office reveals the fact, and a most commendable one, that from a very early period in the county's history, generous and humane provisions were made for the care of the poor, the sick, and the disabled, fo whom fortune had denied her favors. In the earlier days their care and maintenance was secured under contract with suitable persons, who were governed or superintended by commissioners appointed by the County Commissioners Court. The records show that on the 6th of September, 1838, the following order was made:

For the purpose of affording relief to the sick and helpless individuals now in this county, the commissioners have this day contracted with Isham Hardin to furnish, on his part, house room in the dwelling now occupied by him for such persons as shall be directed or sent by the direction of a committee hereinafter mentioned, to the house of him, the said Hardin, and that he shall give such attention and assistance as shall be required by the persons thus sent or directed to his house, after being furnished by the committee aforesaid with the necessary provisions, etc,., at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents a week for each person thus brought or sent to his house. And it is further ordered by the court that Philip Barry, R. W. Carson, George W. Fuller, P. F. Schimer and J. P. DeZoya be appointed a committee to attend, as often as necessary, at the house of said Hardin, tor the purpose of furnishing provisions and other things which they shall deem necessary for the comfort and health of those in the care of Mr. Hardin aforesaid, and that they furnish the provisions necessary aforesaid, at the expense of the county.

A brief reference here to the financial condition of the county may not be out of place in this connection. On the first day of March, 1845, the indebtedness of the county over resources was $53,942.10; March 1, 1846, $63,392.66; March 1, 1847, $68,526.34; March 1, Ife48, $67,776.55; March 1, 1849, $44,619.28. The indebtedness of the county was never fully paid off until 1875. During the war, time orders were issued by the board of supervisors, on which a loan of $229,000 was secured for war purposes. These orders bore eight per cent interest, but in 1875 the principal

June 9, 1848, notwithstanding there was an indebtedness of $67,776.55 hanging over the county, over and above its resources, the authorities took under consideration the purchase of a tract of land and the erection of buildings thereon for poor purposes. A tax of six mills on the dollar was ordered for general county purposes, and an additional tax of one half mill for poor purposes - that is, for the purchase of land for a poor farm and the erection of suitable buildings. In 1849 the poor tax was increased to one mill.

Thursday, July 5, 1849, "W. JB. Green, E. Graham, John Garner and John Lent were appointed a committee to devise plans for a poor house, with a view to building immediately. Sealed proposals for building the same had been invited by public advertisements, and July 19 the clerk was ordered to open the proposals deposited with him from contractors. The proposition of Messrs. Snyder & Willis was considered to be the most favorable, and was accepted, but at a subsequent meeting of the court it was

[December 3, 1849, the county commissioners were succeeded in the management of county affairs by a county judge and two associate justices, who continued to discharge such duties until the people of the county voted to adopt the township system in 1853.]

February 1, 1850, County Judge Bostwick, and R. Brown, as associate justice, sitting as a county court (in special session) for the transaction of county business, had the poor house under consideration. After the county commissioners had ordered that the building of the poor house be deferred, as in the above order, and some time during the month of December, 1849, or January, 1850, new bids for building the same had been invited. Under direction of Judge Bostwick the bids received were opened and severally recorded as follows:

June 6, 1850, it was " ordered that all alterations from specifications and contracts for building poor house made and agreed upon by Y. J. Blood with the contractors, to-wit: Chambers & Smith, be, and the same is, hereby approved." The building was completed as per contract, and a permanent home thus provided for the poor of Jo Daviess County.

The land upon which the poor house was built was bought of Matthew Fawcett, the deed bearing date January 30, 1849, and was described as follows: "The west half of the southeast quarter of section 27, town 28 north, range 1 east (excepting a small part thereof as not intended to be conveyed, of 8.50 acres), and also the east half of the southeast quarter of section 27, same town and range, containing eighty acres " - in all 151|- acres'

This farm and the poor house were successfully and satisfactorily managed until Saturday night, January 8, 1870, when the poor house proper was destroyed by fire. The inmates, forty in number, were at once transferred to a building known as the " Gratiot Building," at the fair grounds, where they were maintained until the completion of a new poor building in 1871.

In the meantime, the board of supervisors, February 23, 1870, voted to sell the old poor farm and purchase a new one. Messrs Switzer, Jones and Chapin were appointed as a committee to sell the old| farm, and instructed not to sell it for less than $4,000. A new farm was looked up, and the Phillips place at Scales Mound selected and condition ally bargained for. The committee" for the sale of the old farm found a purchaser in the person of James Roberts, and on the 22d of March, 1870, the supervisors, in consideration of the sum of $6,205, caused a deed to issue to him therefor.

The Phillips place at Scales Mound did not prove altogether satisfactory, and its purchase was given up, and the following described parcels of land (a part of it belonging to the old farm) purchased for $3,500. " Part of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter ot section 28 and part of the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 27, town 28 north, range 1, east of the 4th principal meridian, containing 38.03 acres; also, a strip of land 98 links in width off the west side of the northeast quarter of said section - number 27, containing 1.97 acres." The deed from James Roberts to the County of Jo Daviess bears date January 2, 1871.

The new building was erected by Messrs. Stowe & Pepoon, and cost $5,560.80. It is a brick structure, built nearly upon the foundation walls of the old one, for the loss of which by fire the county received $5,000 insurance from the Underwriters of New York - almost enough to pay for the new one, without the loss involved in the sale of the whole of the old farm and the repurchase of a small part of it - about forty acres.

The first will recorded in Jo Daviess County was made September 2, 1831, by Patrick Markey. He designated Robert Graham and Patrick Gray as his executors. He directed that his executors should endeavor to make such arrangement with his creditors that " what little personal property I possess and the house and lot on which I live, may not be sacrificed or sold for the payment of my debts, but wait for the payment of debts due me, and for rent arising from my said house, for the discharge of my debts. But if such arrangement can not be made with my creditors, then to sell only the personal property, and so soon as money sufficient can be collected, to pay, in the first place, a debt due to Mr. Edward McSweeney, amount not recollected." This will was signed in presence of John Turney, judge of probate, on the second, and recorded bv him on the 8th of September, 1831.

The following marriage certificate was not the first, but is given for its literary style and the vein of humor running through it: John Roberts )

I, Samuel Smoker, a justice of the peace in and for the County of Jo Daviess and State of Illinois, do hereby certify that, according to the usages in such cases made and pro- vided, and according to the ordinances of God in this behalf, I did join in holy and honored wedlock and in the bonds of everlasting love, the hearts and hands of the within named son and daughter of Adam, viz.: John Roberts and Elizabeth Davis; and consigning them to the blessing and protection of heaven, and to the enjoyment of long years of uninterrupted connubial felicity, I subscribe myself, SAM'L SMOKER, J. P.

The following is a memorandum of furniture belonging to the court house December 6, 1832: "One writing desk and case; one seal press; one table; four benches; judge's bench; two stationary benches in court house; one pigeon-hole desk."

Ordered, That the present mail route from Galena to Farnhamsburg, at Rock Island, as marked by Daniel Fowler, Vance L. Davidson and John Kinney, be, and the same is, hereby declared a public highway - passing Rice's farm, the falls of Apple and Plumb Rivers, crossing the Marvais d'Ogee at the mouth, thence to Farnhamsburg.

Elijah M. Haines, in his " Laws of Illinois, Relative to Township Organization," says the county system " originated with Virginia, whose early settlers soon became large landed proprietors, aristocratic in feeling, living apart in almost baronial magnificence on their own estates, and owning the laboring part of the population. Thus the materials for a town were not at hand, the voters being thinly distributed over a great area. The county organization, where a few influential men managed the whole business of the community, retaining their places almost at their pleasure, scarcely responsible at all, except in name, and permitted to conduct the county concerns as their ideas or wishes might direct, was moreover consonant with their recollections or traditions of the judicial and social dignities 'of the landed aristocracy of England, in descent from whom the Virginia gentlemen felt so much pride. In 1834, eight counties were organized in Virginia, and the system, extending throughout the state, spread into all the Southern States, and some of the Northern States, unless we except the nearly similar division into ' districts ' in South Carolina, and that into ' parishes ' in Louisiana from the French laws.

" Illinois, which, with its vast additional territory, became a county of Virginia on its conquest by Gen. George Rogers Clark, retained the county organization, which was formally extended over the state by the constitution of 1818, and continued in exclusive use until the constitution of 1848. Under this system, as in other states adopting it, most local business was transacted by three commissioners in each county, who constituted a county court, with quarterly sessions. During the period ending with the constitutional convention of 1847, a large portion of the state had become filled up with a population of New England birth or character, daily growing more and more compact and dissatisfied with the comparatively arbitrary and inefficient county system." It was maintained by the people that the heavily populated districts would always control the election of the commissioners to the disadvantage of the more thinly populated sections - in short, that under that system, " equal and exact justice ' to all parts of the county could not be secured. The township system had its origin in Massachusetts, and dates back to 1635. The first legal enactment concerning this system provided that, whereas, " particular towns have many things which concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs, and disposing of business in their own town," therefore, " the freemen of every town, or the major part of them, shall only have power to dispose of their own lands and woods, with all the appurtenances of said towns, to grant lots, and to make such orders as may concern the well-ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders established by the General Court." " They might, also (says Mr. Haines), impose fines of not more than twenty shillings, and ' choose their own particular officers, as constables, surveyors for the highways, and the like.' Evidently this enactment relieved the ""general court of a mass of municipal details, without any. danger to the powers of that body in controlling general measures or public policy. Probably, also, a demand from the freemen of the towns was felt, for the control of their own home concerns.

" Similar provisions for the incorporation of towns were made in the first constitution of Connecticut, adopted in 1639; and the plan of township organization, as experience proved its remarkable economy, efficacy and adaptation to the requirements of a free and intelligent people, became universal throughout New England, and went westward with the emigrants from New England, into New York, Ohio and other Western States, including the northern part of Illinois."

Under these influences, the constitutional provision of 1848, and subsequent law of 1849 were enacted, enabling the people of the several counties of the state to vote " for" or " against " adopting the township system. This question was submitted to the people of the state on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1849, and was adopted by most of the counties north of the Illinois Hiver - Jo Daviess being one of the exceptions.

February 12, 1849, the legislature passed a law creating a county court. Section one of this law provided " that there should be established in each of the counties of this staj;e, now created and organized, or which may hereafter be created or organized, a court of record, to be styled the w County Court,' to be held and consist of one judge, to be styled the ' County Judge.' ' Section seventeen of the same act [see pp. 307-10,' Statutes of 1858] provided for the election of two additional justices of the peace, whose jurisdiction should be co-extensive with the counties, etc., and who should sit with the county judge as members of the court, for the transaction of all county business, and none other.

As previously noteil, the question of township organization was voted on by the people of Jo Daviess County at the November election, 1849, but was defeated.

September 25, 1851, the County Court was petitioned to order another election in November on the same proposition. The election was so ordered, but the proposition was again defeated. The poll book for that year shows that 414 votes were cast for, and 746 against, township organization.

* The New England colonies were first governed by a " general court," or legislature, composed of a governor and a small council, which court consisted of the most influential inhabitants, ana possessed and exercised both legislative and judicial powers, which were limited only by the wisdom of the holders. They made laws, ordered their execution by officers, tried and decided civil and criminal causes, enacted all manner of municipal regulations, and, in fact, did all the public business of the colony.

September 29, 1852, the County Court was again petitioned to order an election for the same purpose. The election was so ordered, and this time the proposition prevailed, but by what majority we are unable to state, from the fact that the poll book for the November (1852) election is not to be found. Neither is the poll book of the election held in November, 1849, on file among the other papers in the County Clerk's office.

Saturday, December 11, 1852, after the result of the election was known, the County Court, William C. Bostwick, County Judge, andJosiah Conlee and Richard Brown, Associate Justices, appointed Charles R. Bennett, George N. Townsend and David T. Barr to " divide the County of Jo Daviess into towns or townships.

February 15, 1853, this committee reported to the County Court that they had divided the county into townships, and established them as follows:

5. Fractional township 29 north, range 2 east, and that part of township 29 north, range 1 east, east of Fever (Galena) River, to constitute one township, named Scales (now Scales Mound).

6. That part of township 29 north, range 1 east, west of Fever River, and that part of township 29 north, range 1 west, east of the Sinsinawa River, to constitute one township, named Mann (now Vinegar Hill).