BACKTRACKING
Knox County Early
History
Part III. Civilization
and Organization
by Terry Hogan
With the formation of Knox County in 1830 and the completion
of the first election, Knox County took its first steps in becoming civilized
and having some local control over its destiny. Knoxville appeared to be the city on the move and destined
for bigger things as the county seat.
It was only four days after the election of the County
Commissioners that they held their first meeting. It was held in Henderson Township
in the home of John Gum. The house was a one-story double log cabin, with each
half having only one room. It became the temporary court house until a log
cabin courthouse was constructed in Knoxville.
Regulation and taxation
Perhaps not surprising, one of the first agenda items for
the court was to begin regulating and taxing taverns. A license was issued to Samuel S. White to operate a tavern,
upon the condition that he made a payment of two dollars and the clerk's fee.
Beyond that, the court established specific tavern rates for White's
establishment:
1/2 pint of whisky 12.5
cents
1/2 pint of brandy 18.75
cents
1/2 pint of wine 25
cents
Meal of victuals 25
cents
Lodging per person per night 12.5
cents
Corn and oats for horse 12.5
cents
Feed and stabling for horse per night 25
cents
It is reported that White did not anticipate making much
money from the Inn, but he did anticipate good money from the sale of
alcohol. In 1848, White left Knox
County heading for Oregon. He had $10,000
to help him on his way (Chapman, 1878).
Post Office
Although mail was expensive and relatively uncommon in Knox
County in 1830, the County Commissioners notified the Postmaster General of
Knox County's existence. They sought the establishment "Éwith a mail as soon as may be practicable."
Election of the Justices
of the Peace and Constables
The County Commissioners apparently didn't want to be
accused of dragging their feet.
They divided the county into two districts for the purpose of holding
elections for the Justice of the Peace and a constable for each district. The north district election was held at
John B. GumÕs house on August 7.
A money-making machine
At least initially, Knox County was a money-making machine. In Knox County's first treasurerÕs report, it can be seen
that Knox County had an income of $341.32 and expenses of $10.75, leaving the
county with a balance of $330.57.
A County Seat is Born
and a Courthouse Constructed
With all this money burning a hole in their pockets, it is
not surprising that the County Commissioners decided they needed a real
courthouse and a real county seat.
The site was selected; a town was laid out; and the legislature named it
"Henderson". The land
was laid out by Andrew Osborn, who was paid $15 for his effort. Two years later, the town's name was
changed to Knoxville. The
legislature authorized the county seat and recognized the county boundaries on
January 15, 1831.
What would be a county-seat without a courthouse? Still gathering no dust, by March 12,
1831, at a special meeting, the Commissioners unveiled their plans to let a
contract to the lowest responsible bidder for the construction of a courthouse.
William Lewis got the contract for erecting the courthouse building for a cost of
$78. Parnach Owen got the contract
to complete the building for $100. The total cost for the first Knox County
courthouse was reported to be only slightly more that the balance in the
coffers of County Treasure - $395.43.
The costs broken out were:
Erection of Building $78
(according to the bid, no overrun!)
Completion of Building $100
(also on budget!)
Six extra windows $6
Chinking, daubing and underpinning $37.50
Upper floor $18.00
Judge's stand, tables, benches and fitting windows $43
Stove and pipe $38
Laying floor, stairway and window shutters $74.93
Total $395.43
(Chapman, 1878)
On April 23, the first sale of lots for Henderson
(soon-to-be Knoxville) was held.
There were 79 lots sold that brought in a total of $1,056. The highest priced lot sold for $61 and
was bought by Riggs Pennington (Bateman, 1899).
If you have a Court, You
"Gotta" Have a Jail
How can you have a court, if you don't have a jail? Another institution had to be added to
Knox County. It was, of course, added in Knoxville, not far from the new
courthouse. The jail was bid out
at $250 to John G. Sanburn, although he was not paid for the work for a couple
of years. It was of logs and 20
feet square. It was there for
"those who wantonly violate law and
order, thus making themselves odious and dangerous to the community.Ó The most memorable attempted jail break
occurred on a Sunday morning. The jail occupant, a blacksmith by the name of
Dingle, set fire to the wooden door in an attempt to escape. He was nearly
consumed by the flames before the worshipers responded to the fire alarm
(Chapman, 1878).
Expensive Time
For reasons apparently lost to history, the Commissioners
who were only charging $5 for a tavern license in 1834, decided to charge $50 for
a 3 month license to sell clocks.
Perhaps the Commissioners figured if folks were drinking, they probably
didn't need to know what time it was.
Chapman (1878) speculates that the fee was set to prevent clock salesmen
from bothering their constituents, perhaps being the equivalent to today's
"no call" list.
Brick Court House
As with all good bureaucracies, the time soon came that the
log court house, built in 1831, was considered inadequate. So in only seven years, a contract was
awarded to Alvah Wheeler and Zelotes Cooley in the rather startling amount of
$15,450 to build a new courthouse to be completed not later than May 1,
1840. Apparently the original
design was found too plain so the design was modified and an extra $725 was
authorized to build a cupola. The
courthouse, still standing in Knoxville, is two stories and reported to be 42
feet and 5 inches by 62 feet 5 inches in size, encompassing six rooms and a
hallway.
Following the relocation of the county seat to Galesburg,
the courthouse saw service as an opera house and an office building. Currently, it is the site of the Knox
County history museum.
Knoxville as Seen from
Afar in 1837
From the above, it can be seen that Knoxville (Henderson)
sprung from a vacant prairie in 1831 and had lots being sold almost
immediately. Mitchell (1837)
described Knoxville in 1837 as "Épleasantly
situated at the head of Haw Creek, a tributary of Spoon river (sic), on a rich
and elevated prairie. It was laid
off a few years ago: it contains about 200 inhabitants, and bids fair to become
a thriving inland town. The
surrounding district is rich, and settling fast with industrious farmers.
Hendersonville and Galesboro' (sic) are small villages, a few miles from
Knoxville."
In 1837, nobody could anticipate that little Galesburg,
formed by a band of religious folks from New York would ÒstealÓ a railroad and
then the county seat from Knoxville. But that is a later story.
Galesburg and Knox
College
One cannot fully discuss the history of Galesburg and Knox
College, nor is there really a need to.
Both have survived and both have adequate voices representing their past
and their present. For those who
want a more detailed treatment of the early history of the establishment of
Galesburg and Knox College, a couple of good places to start are Webster's
(1912) The Story of Knox College
1837-1912 and Calkins'
(1937) They Broke the Prairie. These
two books provided the basis for most of this brief summary.
For this treatment of the early history of Knox County, a
brief overview will probably suffice as many of the readers will have heard at
least bits and pieces of the story. Galesburg owes its name to George W. Gale,
who is considered the founder of Knox College and Galesburg. The Gale family and the Ferris family
(who also played a major role in Galesburg) were related by marriage. Gale was a minister with a vision for a
town and a college that shared a common religious culture. In New York, Gale and his associates
began a campaign to raise money to fulfill his vision. By the middle of 1835, about $20,000
had been promised to the cause.
But only about $6,000 of that was ever received. The goal had been to raise
$60,000. Nevertheless, a committee
was formed to go west and find a suitable place to make the dream come
true. The committee consisted of
Nehemiah West, Thomas Gilbert and T. B. Jarvis.
The committee was given remarkably clear guidance on what
constituted a suitable site. They
were directed to buy at least 20 sections of land. Of the land purchased, 10%
was to be timbered and the remaining to be prairie. The price to be paid was to be $1.25 per acre which was the
"going price" for government sold land in the Military Tract at the
time (1835). Of the land
purchased, three sections were to be retained that would be used for the
college and the town. The
remaining surrounding land was to be divided up and sold for $5 per acre to
settlers. The money raised for
selling the other land was to be used for the college. Money raised from selling lots within
the (nonexistent) village was to be used for establishing a Female Seminary.
(Webster, 1912).
In a letter dated February 19, 1836, Nehemiah West describes
the land they found and bought to fulfill Gales' dream- "Éwe selected a location in the county of
Knox, lying nearly central between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, in the
Military Tract, 150 miles southwest from Chicago and about 40 miles west of Peoria. We purchased about 20,000 acres, nearly
in a square form, mostly prairie." (from Webster, 1912). He went on to describe the land as
"Éa fine tractÉin a very healthy
country, well watered, and supplied with abundance of stone and coal."
In a post script to the letter, apparently as an
afterthought, he adds that the village is named Galesburg and the college will
be called "Prairie College".
The early settlers and associates can be found in the names
of many of Galesburg's streets, for example West, Losey, Tompkins, Chambers,
Simmons, and Ferris streets.
Such was the way Galesburg was located. But why was it
located almost exactly the maximum distance between the Illinois and the
Mississippi River? Why a religious town in a sea of prairie that isolated it
from the main mode of transportation for the time - navigable rivers? Calkins (1937) writes that Gale wanted
this type of location, "He reasoned
that commercial towns would grow up along the rivers, and his city,
strategically located to avoid the evils of large industrial cities, would draw
its students from those towns and escape the contamination of commerce and the
vices of river towns."
But as we know, the best laid plans of mice and men are
often laid asunder by the arrival of the railroads. Galesburg was to seek out
and achieve the railroad coming to it.
This provided economic growth; a door to the outside world for shipping
goods in and out. It also provided
a pathway for immigrants to work on the railroad, stores, homes, farms and
industries that were to blossom with the railroad's economic importance. These
new arrivals could care less about Gale's dream. They were Irish, Swedes, Germans, Italians, to name a few,
and there were many Catholics and Lutherans among them. Galesburg grew with the railroad, but
deviated from the path laid out by Gale and the founders of Knox College and
Galesburg.
But Galesburg flourished with the railroad.
References
Bateman, Newton, et al. 1899. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and Knox County. Munsell
Publishing Company. Chicago. 968 pages.
Calkins, Earnest. 1937. They
Broke the Prairie. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 451 pages.
Chapman, Chas. 1878. History
of Knox County, Illinois. Chicago. 718 pages (reprinted version by Knox
County Genealogical Society, Galesburg, IL).
Davis, James. 1998. Frontier
Illinois. Indiana University Press. 515 pages.
Mitchell, A. 1837. Illinois
in 1837; A sketch descriptive of the
situation, boundaries, face of the country, prominent districts, prairies,
rivers, minerals, animals, agricultural productions, public lands, plans of
internal improvement, manufactures etc. Philadelphia. 143 pages.
Webster, Martha. 1912. The
Story of Knox College. 1837-1912. Wagoner Printing Company. Galesburg,
Illinois. 210 pages.
1-31-06