The population of Macoupin county in 1829 was 1500. The number of tax payers in the county in 1837 was 1007. They paid a total of $1789.23 into the county treasury. The average tax per person was $1.77. The heaviest tax payer in 1837 was Col. James C. Anderson. He paid a total of $16.80. Of this amount $12.00 was for personal tax and $4.80 on lands. The total value of the assessed property in the county for 1860 was $5,097,589. The total assessed value of all property in the county for 1932 was $31,335,291. In 1933 it was $25,172,397.
The corner stone for the court house was laid October 22nd, 1867. The oartor of the day was John M. Woodson, first mayor of Carlinville. An account of the event published at that time said "the crowd was not large." The Masons were in charge of the program. The inscription facing the east is as follows, the stone being at the northeast corner of the building:
Laid by
The Most W. G. L.
A. F. & A. Masons
By
CHARLES FISHER
DEPUTY GRAND MASTER
October 22d
A. L. 5867
A. D. 1867
BUILDING COMMISSIONERS
A. McKim DuBois
Geo. H.
Holliday
I. J. Peebles
T. L. Loomis
The inscription facing the north reads:
Erected
By Order of
County Court
March Term
A. D. 1867
COUNTY COURT
Thaddeus L. Loomis
Isham J. Peebles
John Yowell
E. E. Meyers
Architect
The court room has been the scene of many historic events. Probably the most noted criminal trial held there was what was known as the "Holmes Murder" case. On the night of May 2nd, 1895, Engineer Frank Holmes of the Chicago & Alton railroad was shot dead in his cab about a mile north of Carlinville. Three men boarded the train at the coal shaft in the city limits. The train was due in here about 11:00 o'clock and was bound for Chicago. Two of the men entered the cab and they halted the train and killed the engineer. The murder, which was a bungled attempt to rob the mail and express cars, created a tremendous sensation in southern Illinois. For about ten days the identity of the perpetrators of the crime remained a mystery, then they were placed under arrest. Their names were Ben Myers, of Carlinville, aged about 35; Ed. Bryant, 18, and Jack Frost, 19, the two latter from Kentucky. The late P. C. Davenport was sheriff. The men were indicted by the September grand jury and were tried for murder at the same term of court with Judge Jacob Foulk presiding. The late Edward C. Knotts was state's attorney. Associated with him in the prosecution were Gen. John I. Rinaker and his son, Thomas Rinaker. Probably never before nor since was such a brilliant array of legal talent engaged in a trial in the Macoupin circuit court. The trial opened Thursday, October 11. It took three days in which to select a jury. The actual trial occupied one week. The verdict of the jury was life imprisonment for the trio. The case was bitterly contested and was marked by many dramatic clashes. The defense counsel was headed by the late United States Senator Daniel W. Vorhees, assisted by his son-in-law, Congressman Lamb, of Indianapolis. Carlinville lawyers who took part in the defense were Hon. C. A. Walker, Judge A. N. Yancey, Hon. A. H. Bell and Jesse Peebles, the latter just starting on his legal career. Senator Vorhees had a national reputation as an orator and was known as the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash."
From the opening of the celebrated case until the jury had returned a verdict the interest of the people was intense and feeling against the prisoners was strong. The court room was crowded to suffocation every day. It was admitted by the attorneys for the defense that the speech to the jury by Senator Vorhees saved the prisoners from the gallows. It was a fatherly talk entirely devoid of heroics or oratorical flights. The following are the names of the jurors who heard the evidence: Ed. Crum, Palmyra; Oscar Sims, Modesto; William Owens, Scottville; W. England, Girard; C. J. Ballow, Hettick; Seth Smith, Woodburn; John Truesdale, Gillespie; James Etter, Palmyra; S. B. Wood, Virden; Alvis Arnold, Scottville; H. Groves, Carlinville; Albert Wilcox, Stirrup Grove. Public opinion accepted the verdict as satisfying the demands of justice.
An interesting fact about this case was that before the trial started Senator Vorhees and Mr. Bell met Judge Foulk one night in his room at the St. George hotel and offered to allow their clients to plead guilty provided the court would not inflict the death penalty. Judge Foulk's reply was: "I will see." That is as far as the matter ever went. State's Attorney Knotts objected to the proposition and the trial proceeded to the end.
The court room was the scene of many local and professional entertainments. The early day Uncle Tom's Cabin companies held forth there. Then there were the Tennessee Jubilee Singers, all colored; and the Swiss Bell Ringers, white performers. These companies came regularly for years to Carlinville.
Gen. John A. Logan, of civil war fame, spoke from its rostrum. For fifty years the annual graduating exercises of Blackburn College have been held in the court room. Memorial exercises for two presidents, who died at the hands of assassins, were held there. They were James A. Garfleld and William McKinley. All politics was laid aside while the people gathered to pay their respects to the memory of the two men who held the highest office in the gift of the American people. Political rallies and conventions almost without number have been held there in the past and are today.
Elsewhere mention is made of the Judge's chair in the circuit court room. It has a decidedly interesting history. For many years it was out of use and was stored in one of the vacant rooms in the building. It had all but fallen to pieces, when about ten years ago the Carlinville Woman's Club took the matter in hand and had the chair thoroughly overhauled and placed in first class condition at their own expense. The work was done by Leo Pfaff, Sr., expert cabinet maker, in the employ of Gusiav Heinz & Company of this city. When the work had been completed there was a ceremony of rededication held in the court room where pictures were taken with Judge F. W. Burton on the bench.
When the recent CWA work began some months past and the interior of the court room was redecorated, the chandelier was taken down. Several times in the past it had been suggested that it be removed because it was alleged to have been a menace to the lives of those who passed under it. The efforts to have it removed were not successful until recently when it was taken down after having done service for sixty-seven years. Much sentiment was attached to it and many regretted that it had to be removed, to make way for more modern lighting equipment.
The exact location of the log court house was always a subject of heated argument among many of the older residents who have since passed from the scenes of this life. Some contended that it was located near the northwest corner of the square. Others maintained that it was at the southeast corner of the square. W. H. Stoddard came with his parents to Carlinville in 1865. He is now a resident of the Second ward. He says that when he was a small boy he remembers that this log structure stood just north of what is now the north front of the new court house, facing East Main street. The late Captain Samuel Welton, one of the prominent pioneers, told Mr. Stoddard that he (Capt. Welton) moved the old log court house, when it was ordered removed to make way for the second court house. Capt. Welton in his later years was under the impression that it was located originally near the southeast corner of the public square. At any rate he was the man who moved it to the site on East Main street just north of the new court house. Mr. Stoddard says that when he was a lad the old log court house was used as a carpenter shop by Mr. Poley, one of the early day residents of the county seat. Mr. Stoddard recalls that the old fireplace had been taken down and double doors substituted for the convenience in bringing in lumber. The names of a number of people were cut on those doors and Mr. Poley said that they were the names of the men who had served on juries from time to time.
But to again refer to the original location of the log court house. It would seem that it was clearly established that it was in the center of the present square, by reference to it in a speech by the late John M. Woodson, first mayor of Carlinville, when he dedicated the corner stone of the new court house, October 22d, 1867. He said; "That house standing just there, is the house erected by Seth Hodges, builder, and formerly stood in the center of the square in this city, on the site where the present (brick) court house stands." It is reasonable to assume that Mr. Woodson knew what he was talking about when he pointed to the old log building and said that it once stood in the center of the square.
Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, one of the associate justices of the supreme court of Illinois, came down from Springfield, and held the first term of circuit court in the log court house in April of 1830. John J. Hardin, once attorney for the people, and Stephen A. Douglas, also attorney for the people, practiced in the log court house. Col. E. D. Batter, one of the prominent attorneys of the state, appeared in court in the first court house. Col. Baker moved to Oregon where he was elected to the United States Senate. He was killed while serving in the union army during the civil war.
To Mrs. Mary A. Graham, of Carlinville, then a girl of 16, fell the distinction of turning the first shovel of earth for the foundation for the new court house. Mrs. Graham was born in March of 1851 and is now in her 83rd year. The ceremony took place at the northeast corner of the building at a point where the corner stone was dedicated in 1867. Nearly seventy years have passed since Mrs. Graham took such a prominent part in starting the court house on its way. She can not recall many of the details but does remember that among those present were County Judge T. L. Loomis and his associates, John Yowell and Isham J. Peebles, and Mr. and Mrs. Crittenden, H. C. Anderson. She says that the crowd was large and that much interest was manifested in the event, Mrs. Graham was born in Spanish Needle and is a daughter of Hiram J. and Sarah (Andrews) Rice. The late Judge E. Y. Rice, of Hilsboro, an uncle of Mrs. Graham, held court for thirteen years in the brick court house. He was a circuit judge. One of the homes that stood on the site of the new court house was that of Mrs. Hannah Underkoeffler. Mrs. Graham is of the opinion that Mrs. Underkoeffler conducted a millinery shop in her home. Mrs. Graham is the widow of the late W. D. Graham, druggist, one time mayor of Carlinville and a veteran of the civil war. He died November 16, 1909.
The office of the county clerk is located on the east side of the main floor corridor, at the south end of the building. The offices really consist of four rooms. In the early days the southeast room, which is about ten feet square, was used by the county judge as his private office. It is elaborately finished. On the west side of the wall at a height of about ten feet, is a handsome shield-like design in iron, beautifully finished. Other decorations were in keeping. The judge also had a safe in the wall which was used for his private papers.
For some time County Clerk Geo. H. Holliday had his office on the second floor of the three story building located on the south side of East Main street and the square. A large safe was hoisted up to the office and a hole had to be cut in the brick wall to receive it, the windows being too small.
The late Henry Burton, who was Circuit Clerk when the court house was built, was the first county officer to occupy the new temple of justice. He moved over in the latter part of 1869. Casper Westermeier was his deputy.
Four large rooms are located near the dome on the fourth floor of the court house. They were never finished. One of them does not have any floor. Dust and cobwebs, the accumulation of more than half a century, give them a weird appearance. It is believed that they were intended to be used for storage of old records but no one actually knows this to be a fact.
Nearly all of the material for the court house was hauled to the site on flat cars drawn by oxen. The Chicago & Alton railroad put in a switch near the end of West First North street. The track extended east up the street to High street, then turned south, entering the court house park south of where the Presbyterian church now stands. Quite a few people in Carlinville are old enough to remember this "ox railroad." The stone composing the large columns supporting the porticos at the north and south entrances were brought to the site in square blocks. Then they were mounted in pairs opposite each other and ground down in the rough to near the proper size. The finishing was done by hand.
When the proposition to refund the bonds was put up to the people at a special election January 5, 1878, the contest was close. It carried by the narrow majority of 128. The vote was: For 1412; Against, 1284. In Staunton the vote for the proposition was 22, while 202 votes were cast against it. In Virden the number of votes for the refunding was 24 and against it, 253. In Girard the vote for the proposition was 195 with 3 against it. North Otter cast 57 votes for the proposition and 2 against it. In Dorchester township every single solitary vote went against the refund and not a vote was recorded for it. Twenty years later, April 5, 1898, the bonds were again refunded. This time the proposition had better luck. The vote for it was 5213; against 2400. In Girard township the people reversed their former attitude and the vote was for 182, and against 276.
The seats in the court room are straight back and are made after the style of church pews. They are of solid walnut and are artistically patterned. The arm rests on the ends are of iron. Very few, if any public buildings are equipped today with seats of the kind that are in the Macoupin county court house. Much care was used in their construction and finish. The estimated cost at the time they were ordered was $3300. It is believed that they cost much more. Competent judges state that the seats could not be duplicated today for twice the estimated cost. Solid walnut furniture has all but passed out of the picture except in the most expensive establishments. The seats have all been cleaned and revarnished.
The new decorations of the interior of the building have transformed it. Twenty years ago it was decorated in rather dark colors. The work was done by the late Alex. Gaspard. In the present color scheme tan, brown, ivory and very light green were used. The effect is not only restful to the eye, but gives the entire interior a stately appearance. The lighting is all concealed. The interior at the dome is illuminated with flood lights of 2000 candle power. The court room proper is illuminated with two powerful ceiling lights at the rear and one over the judge's stand. The effect is one of much beauty, eliminating all shadows.
All wiring has been concealed in conduits placed in the walls and ceilings. Switches have been conveniently placed for control of the lights.
The outside of the dome has been painted, with aluminum, a light gray and the windows have been trimmed in the same color. The old rock walks have been taken up and concrete walks laid down. A curving driveway of shale has been constructed in the southeast corner of the court house square, leading up to the building.
When Governor Deneen held the last bond over the flame which turned it to ashes, he said: "I hope that this, the last evidence of the indebtedness having disappeared, the old bitterness and bad feeling which existed over the construction of the court house will also fade into history.'' That bitterness is gone. The men who were actively engaged in the construction of the court house, with its ensuing tangle of law suits and bond issues, have passed from the scene of action to their reward beyond. Only a handful of people are now living who remember much about the dramatic days of the court house trouble. A new generation has come upon the stage. With them the animosities created by the court house trouble are only tradition. They hear it mentioned occasionally but it arouses only curiosity. The attitude today is one of pride in the great court house, which all but tore the county asunder back in the sixties. Time is indeed the great healer of wounds.
During the court of Huggins, Atkins and Olmstead (1869) they employed Charles H. Pond, a St. Louis architect, to go over the contracts for the building filed with the county court, and make an estimate of the cost. Pond measured the building and his report made under oath was $643,867. His estimate included the heating and gas installations and the furniture. However it did not include the commissioner's fees, architects' fees or per cent for the sale of bonds. This amounted to many thousands of dollars. In his report to the court Pond placed the cost of the present county jail at $14,000.
The difference in what the court house cost, $1,380,500, and Pond's estimate of $643,867, is $736,633. Was there graft in the construction of the court house? There undoubtedly was. To say otherwise would he contrary to all the known facts. Who got it? That will ever remain a mystery. Men who were actively engaged in opposing the court house as it now stands and who have since passed away, expressed their belief that none of the county officers, with the possible exception of one, ever profited illegally from the erection of the court house. The one under suspicion might have proved himself innocent had he been brought to trial. It is believed that the ill-gotten gains from the construction of Macoupin's temple of justice went out of the county, but to whom is a sealed book.
Macoupin is one of the largest counties in Illinois. It has a length of 36 miles with a width of 24 miles. There are 864 square miles of territory containing 552,960 acres. The population is about 55,000. It is an agricultural county and also has a number of large bituminous coal mines. Its history is forever associated with and specially illuminated by the names of Lincoln, Douglas, Palmer, Rinaker and Rowett of civil war days.
The committee in charge of the Civil Administration work under which the court house was redecorated and partially reconstructed was composed of the following members: F. H. Richie, of Palmyra, former chairman of the Board of Supervisors; Frank W. Fries, Carlinville, Sheriff; Michael F. Seyfrit, Carlinville, State's Attorney; Peter J. Caveny, Carlinville, County Clerk. The stone work on the exterior of the building has deteriorated badly in many places. Much more money will be required to place it in first class condition.
The following
Macoupin county men have served on the circuit bench since the new court
house was built:
Judge W. R. Welch, of Carlinville. He was born in
Jessamine county, Kentucky, in 1828. Was admitted to the bar in 1851 and
came to Carlinville in 1864. He was elected a circuit judge in 1879 and
re-elected at the expiration of his term of office. He died in 1888.
Judge Robert B. Shirley was born in Madison county in 1850. He came to
Carlinville when a young man and studied law under Judge Welch. He was
admitted to the bar in 1876 and was elected circuit judge in 1893. Judge
Shirley was re-elected and served until his death in June of 1914.
Judge Frank W. Butron was born in Bunker Hill in 1857. He studied law under
the late Charles A. Walker and was admitted to the bar in 1879. Following
the death of Judge Shirley he was elected to the circuit bench and was
re-elected, serving until his retirement in 1933.
Judge Victor
Hemphill, the present sitting judge, was born near Carlinville in 1882. He
graduated from the law department of Washington University, St. Louis, in
1905. He was admitted to the bar in the same year. Judge Hemphill was
elected to the circuit bench in 1933.
Judges who have served on the county bench, beginning with 1849, are as follows: John M. Palmer, James Breden, G. W. A. Cloud, William Weer, Samuel S. Gilbert, George Judd, Thaddeus L. Loomis, Thomas B. Rice, John Yowell, Isham J. Peebles, P. C. Huggins, A. A. Atkins, Martin Olmstead, L. P. Peebles, A. N. Yancey, David E. Keefe, J. B. Vaughn, Balfour Cowan, Herbert Cowan, Andrew J. Duggan, Truman A. Snell, Frank G. Wood and A. A. Isaacs. (Judge Isaacs is the present sitting judge.)
The present county officers are as follows:
County Judge, Alfred A.
Isaacs, Gillespie
State's Attorney, Michael P. Seyfrit, Carlinville
Sheriff, Frank W. Fries, Carlinville
Treasurer, A. H, Behrens, Gillespie
Circuit Clerk, Irvin Reader, Carlinville
County Clerk, Peter J.
Caveny, Carlinville
County Superintendent of Schools, L. B. Wilhite,
Carlinville
County Coroner, Dr. J. A. McBrien, Staunton
County
Surveyor, Fred S. Morse, Carlinville
Master-in-Chancery, E. D. George,
Staunton
County Superintendent of Highways, William Yowell, Carlinville
Chairman of County Board, E. J. Mclntyre, Carlinville
County
Physician, Dr. J. B. Listen, Carlinville
County Mine Inspector, Bruce
Huffmaster, Gillespie
The following oration was delivered by John M. Woodson, at the laying of the corner stone of the new court house October 22d, 1867. It is reprinted from the original booklet, now in possession of Rev. W. Thomas, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who was a resident of Carlinville fifty years ago:
Fellow Citizens: —
Since our assemblage at this place, most appropriately has prayer been
offered up to the Great Ruler of the Universe and Protector of Nations for
His blessings upon a work undertaken; and the solemn and ever impressive
rites and ceremonies of the ancient and honorable order of Free and Accepted
Masons been performed in adjusting this stone, emblematic we trust of
"beauty and strength" — at the northeast corner of the building to be
erected on this ground.
In the contemplation of what has transpired,
the mind of the classic student is, with some propriety, led to inquire why,
in this day of enlightenment, the solemnities of the hour? Is this an era in
which the gods are implored, and the oracle consulted with offerings of "the
corn of plenty," "the wine of joy and gladness." and "the oil of peace?"
"The very air that I breathe, he exclaims, is filled with the dust and mould
of antiquity!"
It is true the ancients dedicated their temples to
the gods by the most imposing ceremonies; and we to-day are making history
''repeat itself" in imitating and conforming, to some degree, to the manners
and customs of the ancients. Speculative Masonry dates back to the building
of the most celebrated and magnificent temple mentioned in biblical or
profane history — that of King Solomon. And Ancient Masonry, adhering to the
rites and ceremonies of the Order, unchanged by civil commotion or
revolution, the undisturbed witness of the decay of national greatness and
splendor, the tottering of thrones and crumbling of mighty governments,
buried now in oblivion — save the page of history — to-day untouched by the
ruthless hand of innovation, sits as the hand-maid of the Christian
religion.
In the further contemplation of subjects which crowd upon
the mind on this occasion, the fields of religion, philosophy, poetry,
chivalry and ancient and modern history open up, inviting one to digress
from the true purpose for which we have convened, and tempting one to pluck
a gem or a flower by the wayside. But without making such a digression, I
will pass to the presentation of what. I trust, will, in view of the fact
that we have met to congratulate ourselves upon our prosperity and progress
as a people, interest every one present, the history and organization of the
government under which we immediately live, and by which we are, so to
speak, immediately governed. Endeavoring in a concise manner to show,
particularly, the rise and progress of our county, and the legitimate ends
desired to be accomplished in the further prosecution of the work here
undertaken.
On the 17th day of January, A. D., 1829, while the
Capitol of the State of Illinois was located at Vandalia, the General
Assembly of this State passed an act creating the County of Macoupin, in
territory once comprised in the County of Greene, and which, since its
formation, in extent and boundary has remained unchanged. The County was
called Macoupin, after the creek of that name which traverses it. The
original Indian word or words from which the creek derived its name was or
were Mac-cou-pin-na — white potatoes, or wild artichokes, which grew in
great abundance along the creek bottom at an early day, as I learn. (Note —
Here follows a description of the log court house previously given in this
book, omitted here).
The County Seat of Macoupin was called
Carlinville, in honor of Thomas Carlin, a member of the General Assembly in
the year 1829, and afterwards Governor of the State of Illinois, through
whose influence and active instrumentality the act was passed.
By
the terms of the contract the house was to be completed for the reception of
the Judge of the Circuit Court, who was expected on the day mentioned in the
contract for completion, to open the first Circuit Court ever held in
Macoupin County.
That house standing just there, is the house
erected by Seth Hodges, builder, and formerly stood in the center of the
Public Square, in this city, on the site where the present court house now
stands.
In that house, then of so rude an architecture — changed in
its appearance — of late occupied as a private residence, and now again the
property of the county — Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, then one of the Associate
Judges of the Supreme Court of this State, a man of the purest integrity,
and an able jurist, and with whose name begins my earliest recollections of
the Court, the Court House, and the bar, held the first term of the Circuit
Court of Macoupin County, in April, A. D, 1830.
In that house has
glittered the intellectual steel of men born to be great; and a score of
names of men, eminent and distinguished, could be mentioned, who, within its
rude walls, made their first strides toward eminence and distinction.
Of the living it is unnecessary for me to speak — you know them. Of the
dead, though known, it would be appropriate in this connection, had I time,
to pronounce an eulogy, and in becoming terms of praise to mention the names
of men, the memory of whom we cherish as a part of our own history.
On this occasion my duty to the living and the dead, admonishes me to
briefly speak of several of the most prominent: Of John J. Hardin, once the
attorney of the people here, talented and brilliant — loved and admired for
his social character, his intellectual ability and generous impulses; he
having gained distinction as a civilian, sought military honors in the
Mexican war, in the command of a brave regiment of Illinois volunteers, and
poured out his blood on the sanguinary field of Buena Vista; and his death
wrapt in sorrow the hearts of Illinoisans.
Of Col. E. D. Baker, one
of the most remarkable men who figured in the early history of Illinois; an
orator, a genius; who, at the bar or at the political hustings dashed away,
as it were, every impediment, and moved directly to the heart — touching the
sympathies of the juror in his box, and winning the admiration of a
promiscuous audience — he rose to political distinction in Illinois,
afterwards represented Oregon in the United States Senate, and later as a
General of the Volunteers, was the victim of an ill-advised military
movement or blunder on the Potomac, in the late war. His words of eloquence
and sublimity pronounced at the grave of Senator Broderick, most beautifully
paint the imagery of his mind and the elegance of his diction, and are a
becoming tribute to his eloquent voice, now hushed forever — "in death its
echoes will reverberate amidst our mountains and our valleys, until truth
and valor cease to appeal to the human heart."
And of Stephen A.
Douglas — whose name and memory are so much cherished and admired by the
people of this State — in that house as a Prosecuting Attorney, it may be
said, he commenced the struggle of life. Ambitious to reach the highest
pinnacle of statesmanship and of fame — mounting, as it were, upon the wings
of the morning, he soared aloft to the meridian height of glory, and
hastened to his setting. A green grove on the shore of Lake Michigan marks
the spot where the dead statesman reposes. His ashes are ours; a nation has
honored his name, and a monument of marble will speak to generations yet
unborn the brilliancy of his career, and the value of his services in the
Mississippi Valley.
On the 7th day of March, A. D., 1831, John
Harris, the first Sheriff of the county, settled with the county
Commissioners' Court the revenue of the county for the year 1830, amounting
to $177.85, which had been raised by the levy of a tax of 50 cents on each
$100.00 worth of taxable property in the county.
At the June term,
A. D. 1835, owing to the rapid growth of the county, and the court house
which had been erected being found insufficient for the convenient
transaction of business, the Court appointed Col. James C. Anderson, Isaac
Greathouse, Stith M. Otwell, John R. Lewis and John Wilson, agents to borrow
not less than five thousand, and not exceeding seven thousand dollars at not
exceeding eight per cent. int. per annum, for not less than six, nor more
than ten years, for the purpose of erecting a good and sufficient brick
Court House.
At the March term, A, D. 1836, the agents reported
their inability to borrow the money on the terms mentioned in their
appointment; and thereupon the Court made a further order, authorizing said
agents to give ten per cent. interest; but the county was not able to borrow
the money.
At a special term of the County Commissioners' Court,
held September 20th, A. D. 1836, commissioners Jesse Rhoads and Thomas Corr,
adopted the plan of the present Court House; and Col. James C. Anderson, Dr.
J. R. Lewis and Thomas Corr were appointed commissioners to let out the
building to the lowest bidder — the building to be paid for as follows:
$2,000 March 1st, A. D. 1838; $3,000 March 1st, A. D. 1839; 54,000 March
1st, A. D. 1840; $4,000 March 1st, A D. 1841; and the balance, provided not
over $2,000 March 1st, A. D. 1842 — in the aggregate amounting to fifteen
thousand dollars — installments to be paid in county orders, to bear eight
per cent. interest after maturity.
At the March Term, A. D. 1836, of
the Court, Jefferson Weatherford, the second Sheriff of the county, settled
with the Court the revenue of the county for the year 1835, amounting to
eight hundred and sixty-three dollars and fifty cents.—In this connection it
is a matter of interest to observe the difference in the taxable property
returned in the county in the year 1835 and in the year 1865, thirty years
after:
In 1835 to realize the amount of revenue reported by the
collector, the assessment, at fifty cents on each one hundred dollars worth
of property (and that was the rate of taxation at the time) would make the
total assessed valuation, one hundred and seventy-two thousand and seven
hundred dollars, ($172,700). In 1865 the assessed valuation of property in
Macoupin county was six millions, three hundred and fifteen thousand, two
hundred and thirty-two dollars, ($6,315,232) an increase In thirty years of
over six millions of dollars.
Every one acquainted with our system
of taxation, and the statistics returned in the reports of our public
officers, is well aware that the assessed value of property in Macoupin
county, is about one third of its actual value. That being true, let us see
what was the actual value in 1835 and in 1865, assuming the same
disparagement is applicable to both assessments:
True value in 1835,
$518,100.00.
True value in 1865, $18,935,696.00.
Pursuing the
investigation further, let us compare, taking dates, the financial condition
of our county; to be more explicit, its ability to pay a debt: In 1835, the
Court, without credit, contracted to build a court-house to cost $15,000. In
order to have raised that amount of money on the true value of the property
in the year 1835 ($518,000,) as I have mentioned, in one levy, it would have
been necessary to have imposed a tax of nearly three per centum. Now let us
see what sum would be realized by the imposition of a tax of three per
centum on the true value of the property, in the year 1865 ($18,935,698.) It
would be $568,070.88. By this comparison, based upon statistics, it will be
observed that Macoupin county was much more able in 1865 to build a court
house to cost $284,000, than In 1835 to build a court-house to cost $15,000.
And here, lest I should be charged with a forgetfulness of duty and a
departure from propriety, I wish, in the comparison and presentation of
statistics, to disclaim any intention to attempt, on this occasion, to argue
any one into the indorsement of the acts of any public servant. This day I
bury the partisan, and come here to rejoice with my fellow-citizens, in the
progress of our county.
As a citizen of Macoupin county, in looking
over the past, I admire what the pioneers of this people have done. With a
keen perception they penetrated the veil of the future and saw what was in
store. To resume: let us see what has been done in the quarter of a century
intervening between the years 1840 and 1865:
In 1840 the population
of Macoupin county was 7,826. In 1865, 32,305,
In 1840 the number of
churches in the county did not exceed ten, of any character. In 1865, about
sixty good houses.
In 1840 there was not a flouring mill in the
county; in 1865 twenty-one flouring mills — two in the city of Carlinville,
said to be as good as can be found in this State, capable of turning out
1000 barrels of flour per day; 1 at Brighton, 1 at Shipman, 1 at Nilwood, 2
at Girard, 2 at Virden, 1 at Palmyra, 1 at Scottville, 1 at Chesterfield, 1
at Rhoad's Point, 2 at Bunker Hill, 1 at Woodburn, 1 at Gillespie, 1 at
Clyde, l at Dorchester, 2 at Staunton. Besides the flouring mills mentioned,
our business men along the lines of railroad have introduced a great deal of
machinery for pressing hay. shelling corn, and elevating and handling grain
of all kinds.
In 1840 the number of primary and common schools in
the county was 14; scholars, 375. In 1865 the number of free schools, 186;
scholars, over 9,500.
In 1840 Macoupin county produced 42,919
bushels of wheat; in 1865, over 500,000 bushels. In 1840 Macoupin county
produced 510,930 bushels of corn; in 1865, near 2,000,000 bushels.
In 1840 there was not a foot of railroad in the county; in 1865, about 65
miles of railroad — the Chicago & Alton, and the St. Louis, Alton & Terre
Haute routes — leading thoroughfares from the great cities of the sea-board
and lakes to the great city of the Valley of the Mississippi.
A
little over thirty years ago this place was without mail facilities, and it
may be said without roads. The first traveled mail and stage route through
this country was from St. Louis to Springfield; leaving St. Louis, thence
going to Edwardsville, Madison county; thence to a watering-place on "Wolf
Ridge," now the site of the town of Bunker Hill — one of the most beautiful
towns in Illinois, then inhabited by the wolves — thence heading the streams
via Dry Point, Honey Point and Shaw's Point to Zanesville, in Montgomery
county; thence via Macoupin Point to Springfield. In the examination of this
subject, I have endeavored to seize upon the most prominent facts, and
present them; it would be tedious to longer detain you in the investigation.
In this great State of Illinois, is it a matter of wonder that the
red man hesitated in giving up his rich hunting ground, its broad expanse of
prairie and woodland, its beautiful limpid streams and silvery lakes; their
home by nature — the land in which their dead were buried? In reviewing the
legends of the past, is not the heart of the white man melted in the
contemplation of the love which actuated the Indian warrior, Black Hawk,
when he fought for the grave of his daughter, on the bank of the "Father of
Waters" — a spot to which he annually repaired to lament and bewail the
death of his dark-eyed Indian girl, the pride of his heart and of his Indian
home?
The pale-face came: the march of civilization set in; the
Indian fell back, unable to cope with the unyielding will of the pioneer.
The finger of inexorable fate pointed to the hour of their departure; the
darkness of Indian barbarism was to be dispelled in this beautiful land, by
the refulgent light and truth of the christian religion; and to-day the
graves are the only traces left, almost, which mark an era when all this
county was the home of the savage. From a wilderness it has sprung into a
garden; from a wild waste or hunting-ground, it has become the home of
millions, and teems with wealth.
Fellow-citizens: in scanning the
quarter of a century that has just elapsed in the rise and growth of our
county, have we not every reason to congratulate ourselves upon our
prosperity? At first we see our county struggling from paucity of numbers
and meagerness of revenue, in the establishment of an organization. Then
were her pioneer days of happiness. Now she has mounted up with the most
energetic, of her sisters, and we can boast of her position, and experience
an exalted feeling of pride in her advancement, her growth, her wealth, her
richness of soil, her abundant productions; her churches, her colleges and
seminaries of learning; her school-houses, her cottage homes; her farmers,
their herds and their granaries; her mechanics, the busy hum of their
industry; the budding wealth of home manufactures, and last, but not least,
in the rising grandeur of the structure here being erected by the skill of
her artisans. Oil this ground where we are to-day have placed this
cornerstone, is to rise
"The princely dome, the column and the arch,"
and in the beautiful symmetry of the Roman Corinthian style of
architecture, an edifice of magnificent proportions, which, as a public
building, will not be surpassed in any county in the State of Illinois; a
structure to be the property of Macoupin county, it will stand here as the
watch-tower of a great and rich people, encircled by a country not surpassed
in the world.
Fellow-citizens, pause and contemplate her greatness.
She stretches from the West to the East twenty-four miles; from the South to
the North thirty-six miles; contains an area of eight hundred and sixty-four
square miles, and over five hundred and fifty thousand broad acres.
Where is the man in our county who does not feel a pride this day — burying
the partisan, and rising to an appreciation of what we are and what we may
be if our resources are properly husbanded and directed? Greece, the mother
of oratory, philosophy, poetry and architecture, had not, in her palmiest
days a soil like ours — had not the resources and facilities of this
nineteenth century, but her people were proud of being called Athenians; and
Athens, in her glory, was supported by the strong hearts and willing minds
of her people, who, in a noble spirit of emulation, sought to make Greece
celebrated and renowned — to make her terrible in war and proud in peace.
Let us then, in the proper spirit, emulate and follow the example of
the Greek — let our watchword be ONWARD! till we can say, at least, that
Macoupin county shall worthily be designated the richest field in
agriculture and letters in the "garden spot of the American continent."
To-day let us dedicate our hearts to the cause of our county; and when
this building is completed, let us again repair to this place to dedicate it
as the temple of Justice — that Justice of which one of the most brilliant
of modern British essayists has most beautifully said; "Truth is its
handmaid, freedom is its child; peace is its companion, safety walks in its
steps, victory follows in its train; it is the brightest emanation of the
Gospel; it is the greatest attribute of God; it is that center around which
human motives and passions turn, and Justice sitting on high, sees genius
and power, and wealth and birth revolving 'round her throne, and teaches
their paths, and marks out their orbits, and warns with a loud voice, and
rules with a strong arm, and carries order and discipline into a world,
which, but for her, would only be a wild waste of passions."
Fellow-citizens; I trust that we may all live to see the hour when justice
shall sit in her temple here, and a light be shed abroad, which, In its
influence, "will extinguish revenge, and communicate a spirit of purity and
uprightness."
Extracted 16 Dec 2018 by Norma Hass from The History of the Famous Court House Located at Carlinville, Illinois, by W. B. Brown, published in 1934, pages 22-36. (The biographies from pages 37-54 were added to our Biographies section.)
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