Alexander County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter XXVII Harrell's Short History 1910 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 20, 2007, 2:34 pm Book Title: A History Of The City Of Cairo Illiniois CHAPTER XXVII HARRELL'S SHORT HISTORY AND "THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER, UNION AND PULASKI COUNTIES" IN the preface I have spoken of the short history of Cairo, written by Moses B. Harrell in 1864, and constituting the first fifty pages of a city directory of that year. It is an excellent history, condensed, of course, almost to the utmost limit. Mr. Harrell was perhaps the only man in. Cairo who could turn out such a piece of work in the short time he speaks of, and at the same time touch almost everything and that, too, in so connected a way as to impress one with the thought that the work of arrangement and condensation was his most difficult task. He had come to Cairo at a very early day, namely, July 8, 1848. He had been engaged almost all the time in newspaper work. His fine memory, his extensive knowledge of all local matters, his large store of general information, his easy use of his pen, and his fluent style, enabled him to do with ease what other men could do only with much effort and much time. Let me introduce here a short account of the coming of the Harrells to Cairo, given me by Mr. Wm. Harrell a month or two before his death, which occurred here, August 11, 1909, in his eighty-ninth year. There were four brothers, Bailey S., born in 1809; William, in 1820; Isaac L., in 1826; and Moses B., in 1828. The family had come from Virginia to Boone County, Kentucky. They removed across the river to Cleves, Ohio. Bailey made a trip down the river in 1833. He did not stop here. There was nothing here then but one or two cabins. William passed Cairo about the 25th of December, 1837, on a flatboat, about 18x85 feet, loaded with apples, cider, flour and meats, and a great many other kinds of produce. There were five men abroad. The boat and cargo belonged to Nathan Sidwell, of Cincinnati. They stopped a few days at Caseyville on account of the ice. They did not stop at Cairo, but went on south to New Orleans, where they remained a week. He went back as far as Vicksburg on a steamboat and from thence coasted along the river for a considerable distance, when he took another steamboat and went on to Cleves, where he arrived about the first of April, 1838. The old log hotel at the point and some shanty houses were all that he saw here at that time. A few acres of ground were cleared in the vicinity of the hotel. The river was high enough so that he could get a pretty good view of the place. On his trip to New Orleans they met three or four steamboats, one the Diana, one the Shippen and another the Hutson, all of them side-wheel boats. Bailey and he made a trip to New Orleans in 1840, on the Steamer General Morgan, on which they shipped a large number of sheep. They sold out very soon and returned on the steamboat Southerner. In the same year he made another trip on a flatboat owned by Scott Harrison, the father of President Harrison. They did not go further than Natchez, where they sold their shipment. In the fall of 1841, Bailey and he came here with two flatboats, cattle in one, and a general assortment of produce in the other. They sold all they had to Howard and Hylan, who built the first levees here. Their cargoes brought them about two thousand dollars. Six hundred of it was paid in the bills of the Cairo bank at Kaskaskia. On the way home, on a steamboat, they heard that the bank was "a little shaky," and a man told them if they would discount the bills at six per cent he would take them. They did so and had been home not more than a week or two when they heard that the bank had failed. This was the bank authorized by the act of January 9, 1818, entitled, "An Act to incorporate the City and Bank of Cairo," granted to John G. Comegys and others by the legislature of Illinois territory. At this time a frame addition had been built to the old hotel, and the building was full of people, who1 came to buy real estate. Straw beds had to be put down on the floor, so great was the number of people here. There were twelve or fifteen houses north of the hotel, up along the Ohio, and a few houses back of the levee. The company had put up a few good houses. There was a foundry and a machine shop, large buildings, and two saw-mills. There were three stores, one of which was occupied by Captain Falls. Howard & Hylan had built the Ohio levee, a small levee from the point up to Eighteenth or Nineteenth Street. They also built a cross levee, or part of one, extending from Seventeenth or Eighteenth Street out westward near the office building of the Trustees. He described somewhat fully the large warehouse, or stone foundation for a warehouse, built on or adjoining the levee near Fourth Street and extending back to or near Commercial Avenue. He said it seemed impossible to purchase real estate in Cairo then. He heard some men talking about the matter, and one said to the other that he had offered $20,000.00 for some property, but the fools would not sell. At that time the steamboats, or almost all of them, ran between the island and the Misissippi levee and came around close to the point. Lawyer Gass went over on the island and endeavored to make a settlement, that is, to acquire a pre-emption right, but the water came up so high around him that the calking came out of his boat and he had to leave the place. Bailey and he came again in 1844. They remained here after that time. There was little change in the town from 1841 to 1844. In 1841, Howard and Hylan were anxious to buy all they had. Their men, who were chiefly Irishmen, were almost starving and they needed supplies for them. Everything was going to wreck and people leaving the town, so much so that the population wTas reduced to two or three hundred. There was a strip of land cleared, extending back a quarter of a mile from the Ohio side, probably not so far around the saw-mills, the foundry and the machine shops. Beyond the cleared places, the timber was generally very heavy. The other history spoken of in the preface is the "History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties," published in 1883. It is a large work, containing nine hundred and twenty-six double column pages. The three parts of it relating to Alexander County and Cairo, were written by Mr. H. C. Bradsby, also a resident of Cairo many years. Like Harrell, he was a newspaper man and a good writer. He was connected with the Cairo newspapers many years, and was a correspondent of a number of the newspapers in the large cities. His part of this large book was well done. While it might be allowable to reproduce in this book almost all of what is contained in Harrell's short history, because of the very few copies in the city, the other one, in any view, would have to be left as an independent history up to the time of its publication, twenty-seven years ago. With this history in so many libraries and families in the city, I have felt it my duty to omit many matters and things which are set forth and often very fully presented in this large history of those three counties. One will find that it presents many matters not referred to by me at all, or only very briefly. I have omitted them or merely mentioned them, because found in the other book; and hence persons who may not find herein what they are searching for should refer to the other work. It is to be regretted that it has nothing that can properly be called an index. Its value is greatly impaired by this omission. It would be much more useful, at least for us here, were those parts of it relating to Cairo and Alexander County brought together and, with a good index, bound in a separate volume. Two hundred and ten pages of the book relate to Cairo, two hundred and thirteen to Union County, fifty-seven to Alexander County, eighty-six to Pulaski County, sixty to biographical sketches of Cairo men, and two hundred and seventy-eight to biographical sketches of men of Union and Pulaski Counties. To facilitate reference to this large volume of 1883, I have given further on a list of the citizens of Cairo whose biographical sketches appear therein. 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 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/alexander/history/1910/ahistory/chapterx141gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 8.9 Kb