Alexander County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter IX Low Lots And Grounds 1910
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Book Title: A History Of The City Of Cairo Illiniois

CHAPTER IX

LOW LOTS AND GROUNDS-SEEPAGE-THE LINEGAR BILL-STREET FILLING-CITY INDEBTEDNESS



WHILE our levees have effectively protected the city from overflow for fifty

years, we have not been able to adopt any plan to prevent seepage. The

underlying strata of sand at and below a certain depth are full of river water,

whose level rises and falls with the rise and fall of the waters in the rivers.

The rivers unite in these subterranean waters. The natural earth surface of the

city presents a number of ridges, generally extending across the city in a

southeast and northwest direction. One crosses 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th Streets

diagonally; one, two or three blocks further north; one, still further north and

extending on northwestward to and beyond block numbered four, in the third

addition to the city; and one from the vicinity of the stone depot on the Ohio

at Fourteenth Street and out by the office building of the Trustees and Mr. J.

B. Reed's residence. From thence up to the vicinity of Twenty-Eighth Street, the

natural ground is generally very low. In these ridges it is claimed that much

more underlying sand is found near the surface than in the much lower and level

ground, and that these ridges are the chief sources of the seep water. The

seepage is due to the pressure of the high waters in the rivers upon the water

in the underlying sand, and the latter is forced up to the surface through the

porous earth or sand or through openings caused by the decayed roots of trees or

otherwise. If the underlying water is much nearer the surface in the ridges than

in the low grounds, then indeed more water may seep from the ridges than

elsewhere; but this is counteracted by the increased height to which the water

must be forced or lifted. It is well remembered that in the days of driven

wells, iron pipes of two inches diameter were driven into the earth to the depth

of sixty to eighty feet, and when the rivers were high these pipes would send

out constant streams of water. Hence those ordinances of the city forbidding

excavations in the earth for any purpose to any considerable depth.



   In times of very high water in the rivers, the city is much like an empty

basin sunken almost to its brim. The minutest opening in the bottom of the

vessel will permit a stream of water to shoot up almost to the level of the

brim. To prevent this, there is but one effective or practical remedy, and that

is earth filling. It is the process of stopping the openings in the surface of

the ground within the city. The only other method ever suggested was to stop or

keep the river water from getting under the city. That is undoubtedly the best

of the two or the best of all methods or remedies; but as a working method or

theory, it is so wholly impracticable as to be worth very little. It assumes

that the sources of the underground supply of water from the rivers are few and

easily reached and stopped or shut off by what is called sheet piling. With a

river shore line of seven to ten miles and the whole site of the city nothing

but an alluvial plain resting on sand, very much like the Illinois Central

bridge piers which rest on nothing but sand, how one could expect to keep the

river water from finding its way everywhere under the city is hard to

understand. The driven wells in all parts of the city north and south exhibited

the same water connection with the rivers and no doubt had hundreds of places of

supply. They simply tapped the river water right under them and conducted it to

the surface. It was forced to the surface in the city by the pressure of the

higher water in the rivers. The water was simply seeking its level. The city

protected itself against those sources of water from the river by requiring the

driven well pipes to be plugged.



   In the selfsame way, the method to stop the seepage was to stop the

innumerable openings throughout the city, reaching down to the waters beneath,

by rilling the low grounds with earth to such depth as would prevent the

penetration thereof by the upper pressure of the water. Were it practicable to

fill with earth all the low grounds within the city to a depth of four to six

feet or to the grade of the filled streets in the lower part of town, we would

be free forever from the great evil to which the seepage has so long subjected

the people of the city. No one has ever seen any seepage, not the smallest

quantity, making its appearance on any of the filled streets in the city or

where the natural surface has been covered with earth to the depth of four or

five feet. The expense of this process has been the only thing in the way of

putting the city beyond the reach of this great annoyance. The low site of the

city has always been its chief drawback. Earth filling has been the great need,

almost the only need. Such work is the work every one should want done. It is

simply making the site of the city just what every one would have it to

be,-higher and higher than the rivers left it when they were shut out by the
levees.



   Earth filling is the need, not sand. In all those parts of the city now

filled or being filled with sand, the seepage will rise just as high as before

the filling. The water will come up through it just as it comes up to the

natural surface through the sandy strata extending down to the river waters.

Were our levees sand only the waters would not be kept out of the city. Earth

embankments are used for dams the world over, because the water will not

penetrate them. So, also, a few feet in depth of earth filling will keep down

the upward pressing seepage water. But the earth here is a poor quality even for

levees. It has too much sand.



    The Linegar Bill.-Under Mayor Charles O. Patier's administration, an attempt

was made to test the legality of the act of our legislature passed May 19, 1883.

It was called the "Linegar Bill" because David T. Linegar, the county's

representative in the lower house of the legislature, had drawn it. Its

provisions show that it was carefully drawn. It provided for the filling of the

low lots and grounds of the city and charging the expense thereof upon the lots

and grounds filled. Doing this, however, was dependent upon its being shown that

the rain and seepage accumulated on such lots and grounds and became stagnant

and injurious to the public health and that such lots and grounds with the

stagnant waters thereon were nuisances. The people, with few exceptions, were

heartily in favor of the bill and of proceedings under it to abate the evil,

which was one to be gotten rid of, if it were possible, upon any reasonable

terms or conditions. It had existed ever since the town and its levees had

existed; and strangers and visitors were amazed that we could not devise some

means to rid ourselves of these annual invasions.



   Mayor Patier started out to ascertain whether the Linegar Bill was worth

anything or nothing. An ordinance was adopted October 17, 1892, describing

certain very low lots and providing for their filling and for steps to be taken

to collect therefrom the costs of the work, which were made a lien on the lots.

Lots fourteen and fifteen, in Block fifty-one, First Addition, were selected for

the making of a test case. Among the few persons in the city who opposed the

bill or the doing of anything under it, were Col. Samuel Staats Taylor and Capt.

William P. Halliday, in most respects the two most prominent men in the city.

Col. Taylor's reasons for opposing it no doubt arose from the fact that his

Trustees owned more low lots and grounds than almost all the other people in the

city, and that the assessments thereon would become a heavy burden, very

difficult to be borne by them. Capt. Halliday could have had no such reasons for

his opposition; for he owned few such lots. He wrote or had written a lengthy

article which he published in the Cairo Daily Telegram of June 20, 1891, in

which was set forth at large his reasons for claiming that earth filling was not

our remedy for seepage. He insisted that to prevent the water from the rivers

entering the sand ridges in the city we should resort to sheet piling, cuts of

which were given in the Telegram. He took the strange ground that filling the

low grounds with earth would actually increase the quantity of seepage and would

not keep it from coming in but would add to its depths in other parts of the

city and send it to quarters where it had not formerly gone. In a word or two,

his reasons were, first filling the low places with earth would make matters

worse, and second, the Linegar Bill was unconstitutional.



   Patier, however, was pushing the slow proceedings along to test the validity

of the bill, when he was succeeded in office by one of our citizens who cared

less for the undertaking than he did; and so the proceedings were not carried

further; and to put a final quietus to the matter, that is, to the danger

incident to filling the low grounds with earth, Capt. Halliday applied to the

source from which the law emanated and had it repealed, April 24, 1899. We do

not know what the considerations were which moved the legislature to this

repeal; but whatever they were, their act was in the nature of a calamity to the

city. The members who were solicited to procure the repeal should have said that

the act seemed to them a good one and that if it was unconstitutional it could

be shown before the city could proceed more than a few steps in their undertaking.



   Thus came to an end one of the most important proceedings ever undertaken for

the good of the city and its people. The principles of the bill had been

sustained time and time again in a number of cases in different states, where

large lots and tracts of land in and adjoining cities had been filled in

precisely the same way and to remove the same evils. Wilson v. Board of

Trustees, 133 Ill. 443; Dingley v. City of Boston, 100 Mass. 544; Grace v. Board

of Health, 135 Mass. 490; City Council of Charleston v. Werner, 38 S. C. 448;

same case 17 S. E. R. 33; 24 S. E. R. 207; Sweet vs. Rechel, 159 U. S. 380.

Other cases might be cited, but those given will enable anyone to trace the

authorities. It is a little remarkable that when this matter was before the

people men were to be found in the city who claimed that the seep water was a

good thing to have in the city and that it was not a nuisance to be abated. Few

persons, however, went so far as to object to its being pumped out of the city

and into the river. We have never had anything in the city which developed so

many queer, not to say absurd, theories as did this seepage question and the

remedies for the same. The low grounds were objectionable in every view of the

case, and to get them higher and above seepage and accumulated rain water was a

need too plain for argument. The low site of the city has been the only thing

which has prevented it from being four or five times as large as it is.



   It may be said, it serves no good purpose now to dwell at such length upon

such a past matter as this; but the city still stands in the greatest need of

earth filling; and it is to be earnestly hoped that it is not too late to

obtain, in some large measure, the object the bill was intended to secure. As

elsewhere remarked, next to protecting the site of the city from the abrasion of

the rivers, comes the matter of raising the site by earth filling.



   But if earth cannot be gotten or gotten only at too high a price, sand

should, of course, be used. We have seen that it can be pumped into the city at

rates much less than those required for earth, and hence the inducement to use

it. It will not keep the seepage out or down, but it will keep it out of view,

and it will so raise or lift the earth surface that for many purposes it will be

as useful as the higher grounds of the city.



   Street Filling.-Whatever may have been thought by the people generally as to

the need of filling with earth and raising the site of the town, all were agreed

as to the importance of filling the streets and bringing them to a proper grade

or level. In their natural condition they were and some of them are almost

impassable some portions of the year. Very little of this kind of public work

had been done prior to the year 1863, when the city authorities took the matter

in hand, and July 15, 1863, contracted with Capt. William P. Halliday to fill

with earth Commercial Avenue to 20th Street, Washington Avenue and Poplar Street

to 18th Street and ail the cross streets from 1st to 18th Streets, both

inclusive. The contract provided that the filling should be made to the present

grade of those avenues and streets and at the cost of thirty-five cents per

cubic yard. The contractor gave a bond in the sum of $25,000.00 for the faithful

performance of the work.



   It seems, however, that the contractor, after filling part of Commercial

Avenue, found that he had taken the work at too low a price, and differences

arising between him and the city, the contract, on the 23d day of June, 1864,

was rescinded and the bondsmen released by the city council of the city. The

Trustees in their report to the shareholders, September 29, 1864, speak of this

matter as follows:



   "So, also, from inability of the contractor to do the work at the contract

price, the contract for filling the streets at 35 cents the cubic yard has been

annulled, and a new contract made by the city council for doing the same work at

60 cents the cubic yard. This contract for filling the streets only embraces

streets up as far as Twentieth Street."



   A short time after this, namely, on the 10th day of November, 1864, the

council let the same work to George Odiorne at 60 cents per cubic yard, but

Odiorne does not seem to have given the required bond of $25,000.00, and the

arrangement failed. Afterwards, and on the 25th day of February, 1865, the

council let the work to Fox, Howard & Company, of Chicago, but at the price of

74 cents a yard. That was forty-five years ago and we do not know what the

actual facts and circumstances of the situation were which made it necessary or

important to let go the one contract and bond and take up the others. Something

over eighteen months elapsed from the first to the last letting. These somewhat

peculiar proceedings seem to have been entirely fair and proper, judging by the

well known names of the persons in charge of the matter. David J. Baker, whom

every one esteemed very highly, was the chairman of the board of public works.



   Fox, Howard & Company proceeded with the work and in its prosecution used a

steam shovel for excavating the earth and filling their long line of tram cars

to haul the same into the city and along the different streets to be filled. The

work was pushed forward rapidly, and completed late in the year 1866, or early

in the year 1867. The assessments for paying for the work were levied upon the

abutting lots according to the frontage principle and as provided for in the

laws then in force regarding such matters, but this method of assessment having

been held unconstitutional under our then existing constitution of 1848, in the

case of Chicago vs. Larned, 34 Ill. 203, the collections of the assessments had

to be abandoned, with perhaps almost one half of the assessments unpaid.



   Upon it becoming known in the city that these assessments were not legally

made or levied, all payments of the same immediately ceased; and the question at

once arose as to the liability of the city to refund to the owners of property

the assessments they had paid. Two cases were begun against the city to test the

question, the one by Capt. Walter Falls and the other by Patrick Mockler. The

Falls suit only was tried. Judge David J. Baker, our circuit judge at that time,

heard the case without a jury, and decided that the city was not liable to

refund the payments, chiefly on the grounds that the payments were voluntary and

there had been no failure of consideration, for the filling had been done and

the benefits thereof conferred upon the property upon which the assessments had

been made and had been paid. Capt. Falls took his case on to the supreme court,

where the judgment of the circuit court was affirmed. See Falls vs. City of

Cairo, 58 Ill. 403.



   The payment of assessments having ceased, the city was without means to pay

the contractors, and they therefore brought suit against the city for the

balance due them, and on the 29th day of April, 1868, obtained judgment for the

sum of $110,390.09.



   The city taking no steps to pay the judgment, they applied directly to the

supreme court for a writ of mandamus to compel the city council to make a

special levy of taxes to pay the same. The court awarded the writ, but the

matter was adjusted, under Mayor John H. Oberly's administration, without

further proceedings, by the issuance to Fox, Howard & Company of eight per cent

twenty year city bonds to the amount of $123,000,00. The interest on these bonds

was paid for a few years only. The city in 1876 stopped payment of the interest

on these bonds and on all of its other bonds, the larger portions of which were

railroad bonds. Extensive litigation then ensued and continued for many years,

resulting finally in compromises and settlements, generally by exchanging new

city bonds for the old ones on terms agreed upon from time to time by the

holders and the city authorities. The city had undertaken to carry too heavy a

load. It and the county had issued to the Cairo & Vincennes Railroad Company and

the Cairo & St. Louis Railroad Company (narrow gauge) bonds to the amount of

$385,000.00. The six and eight per cent interest had accumulated rapidly; and

when the city and county ceased payment in 1878, their bonded indebtedness

amounted to the large sum of $765,373.30.



   This bonded indebtedness trouble of the city hung upon and clouded it for

many years beginning with 1876. The county united with the city in attempts to

obtain relief from burdens concededly too heavy to be borne; and the writer

takes occasion here to remark that the services of the Hon. William B. Gilbert

in his representation of the city and county in the litigation with bond-holders

and in the various methods of compromises and settlements were of the greatest

value. With the greatest tenacity of purpose and the most unremitting and

persistent efforts on his part, he brought the city and county out of one of the

most embarrassing financial situations in which such municipalities could

possibly be placed.



Additional Comments:


Extracted from:



A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF CAIRO ILLINOIS

BY

JOHN M. LANSDEN

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY

1910



COPYRIGHTED, 1910

BY JOHN M. LANSDEN



The Lakeside Press

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO



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