Clark County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter III - County Seat 1907
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Book Title: Historical Encyclopedia Of Illinois And History Of Clark County

CHAPTER III.

THE COUNTY SEAT GOES TO DARWIN-DARWIN FEELS HER IMPORTANCE-EXPANDS AND
PROSPERS-COUNTY SEAT AGAIN CHANGES-THIS TIME TO MARSHALL.

   By an act of the Illinois Legislature approved January 21, 1823, the county
seat of Clark County was ordered removed form Aurora to Darwin, two miles south
of Aurora, on the high banks and level plateau adjacent thereto, of the Wabash
River. The navigable rivers in all the countries, being the only public, well
kept highways of travel, commerce and trade, were the natural selection of
incipient communities, which rarely spring up anywhere else. Thus the next
county seat was to still cling to the river. Darwin was much better located for
a seat of justice than Aurora, and on the 2d of March, 1824, the County
Commissioners directed that bids be submitted on the second day of the next
Circuit Court for the erection of a new court house, to supplant the corn crib
of John Stockwell at Aurora. This court house was to conform to the following
specifications. "Twenty feet long in the clear, of hewn oak logs, with a lap
shingle roof; two windows in front and one in the rear; a story and a half high;
a partition upstairs, a small window at each end of the house; plank floor and
rough plank stairs; the windows upstairs to contain six and those below twelve
lights each; chink and plaster the cracks, and finish same in a workmanlike
manner." It will be observed that nothing is said about the width of the house,
or of the height of the story and a half, but it was presumably about square
with the plank loft not more than the customary eight or ten feet from the
ground floor.

   It will be noted that the County Commissioners forgot to specify a fireplace,
or to provide for any heating arrangement for the new court house, but this
matter came up, as will be hereafter shown, later on. One Lucius Kibby was the
lowest bidder for the Court House, and the contract was awarded to him for six
hundred dollars. He was to finish the house in one year from the date of
contract, but it was not completed and ready for occupancy until March 24, 1827,
nearly three years later. It is surmised that the m3W county seat promoters
became impatient, said rude things of Lucius, and doubtless made his life
miserable for his delay in finishing the building. As soon as his work was done
Kibby notified the Commissioners that the new official home of Clark County was
ready for inspection and approval, and they appointed William Martin and Enoch
Davis, "two workmen of approved honesty and skill" to inspect it and report the
result of their findings. This Martin and Davis proceeded promptly to do, and as
promptly reported that Kibby had not performed his work according to contract.
Thereupon the Commissioners scaled down the six hundred dollars to five hundred
and forty dollars, a deduction from the contract price of sixty dollars.
However, they made slight compensation by allowing Kibby nine dollars for
putting in a fire place; cheap enough, when it is remembered that he had to cut
a hole in the logs for its construction, so the price finally paid him for his
three years' labor was five hundred and forty nine dollars. Nothing is said
about the chimney, but it is not unlikely that Lucius had to construct that with
the fireplace, and, if so, his profit on his additional nine-dollar allowance
could not have been large. In September, 1832, this hewed log county building
was weatherboarded, and otherwise repaired, and a Presbyterian preacher, named
Bouton, was kindly allowed to room upstairs and preach below in the court room
proper.

   In 1838 the county seat was removed from Darwin to Marshall. The Darwin Court
House stood on lot 28 and in after years, when "the faces all" had ceased to
"shine out in the back log's blaze", and after the shadows had ceased to "fall
on the old hewed walls, as they did in the early days", it was made to perform
the humble but useful purpose of a stable for Dr. Edward Pearce, then of Darwin,
but now an honored citizen and competent and trusted physician of Marshall. Sic
transit, gloria munda.

   In 1823, a contract was let by the County Commissioners for a jail to be
built at Darwin, and one John Welsh got the contract. It would appear that he
simply tore down the jail at Aurora and hauled it to Darwin where it was used as
a jail until 1830. In December, 1832, the County Commissioners let a contract to
one Mechom Main, Jr., the lowest bidder, for the construction of a hewn jail at
Darwin, for the sum of four hundred dollars. It was used as a jail until the
county seat went to Marshall. This building, like the rest at Aurora and Darwin,
has also passed away. After the county seat went to Darwin, Aurora was partially
fenced in, and the few inhabitants of the ancient county seat of Clark County
began to move away. Those who had purchased lots at Aurora were allowed a
certain credit on lots they saw fit to buy at Darwin, a concession intended
doubtless to break the fall, salve the wounds, silence objections, and, in some
slight measure compensate the residents and land owners of Aurora for the loss
of the county seat. The site of Darwin was known in those days as McClure's
Bluff, named for John McClure, who had long kept a ferry there, and who donated
the land on which the new county seat was built. William Lockard laid off the
town, which consisted originally of sixty-four lots, of which lots 21 and 28
were reserved for the Court House and Jail. The sale of lots took place on the
first Monday of August, 1823, with John Chenoweth as auctioneer. To make the
sale go off briskly, and to properly key the bidders up to the highest paying
point, the commissioners ordered "that John Richardson procure ten gallons of
whisky, to be "drunk" on the day of the sale". This was, of course, paid for out
of the County Treasury. It is only proper to say that Dr. Simon Jumper was not
then there, and no objections to its payment was made and John Richardson was
doubtless promptly and reasonably reimbursed for the liquid refreshments. Dr.
Jumper in after years became an honored and respected citizen of Darwin, as he
is now of Marshall, and this allusion to him has a local meaning in the county
that will be readily appreciated and understood. John Richardson may himself
have sampled this whisky before the sale began, as he bought the first lot for
eighty dollars, a pretty stiff price, even for a man who had received a good
price for his ten gallons of whisky. Lot 32 went to John Stafford for the still
higher price of $111. The Richardson refreshments had seemingly begun to get in
their work. John Chenoweth took lot 64 at $103. The county contribution was
evidently still in evidence. The encouragement seemed to have run low as the
sale wore on, for the price finally went down to $30, the lowest paid for any
lot sold in Darwin that day. Seeing the scarcity of money, the difficulty of
obtaining it, and the further fact that there was not on any of these lots a
single improvement, these prices were exceedingly high. Darwin, however, rapidly
increased in population, speedily rose in importance as a trading point, and
justified the confidence reposed in it by its convivial projectors and
subsequent residents. The territory as far west as Effingham, and as far north
as Danville and Charleston, was laid under contribution to its commerce and
trade. For the first five years of Darwin's history as a county seat its town
lots were higher than in Chicago. Terre Haute took alarm at its rising
importance and increasing population and trade and used every means in her
power, legitimate and otherwise, to divert them to herself, and these efforts
were not without effect. The rising importance of Terre Haute, the construction
of the National Road through the central portion of the county, the prospective
building of a railroad along the line of the National Road from east to west,
and the flocking of settlers along these avenues of travel caused far-seeing men
to turn their eyes and business energies to the north and central portions of
the county. The rumor of another removal of the county seat fell like the
shadows of night upon the hearts and business hopes of the people of Darwin. The
geographical inconvenience of the town was seen only too plainly and petitions
and influence began to reach the Legislature for and against the contemplated
removal. The agitation was kept up until 1835, when the Legislature passed an
act authorizing the people to vote upon the question of removing the county seat
from Darwin, and appointing commissioners to locate a new one. The commissioners
failed to agree upon a new site, and in March, 1837, another act was passed,
submitting the question of the removal of the county seat to a vote of the
people. There were then but seven voting precincts in Clark County: East Union,
West Union, Dubois, Darwin, Washington, Cumberland and Richmond. There are now
twenty. Marshall has three, Wabash two, Martinsville two and Casey two, while
the other eleven townships have one each. All of the above seven voting
precincts went against unfortunate and helpless Darwin, with the exception of
East Union, which stood faithful to her by a vote of fifty-five to thirty-nine,
and her own precinct, which stood for a retention of the county seat by a vote
of 138 to 6. It is suspected that these six traitors to Darwin, and cold-blooded
prospective destroyers of her present and future prosperity as a trading and
business point, had either surmised her coming ruin, and bought land farther
north, or else had looked in the cup of John Richardson's whisky when it was
red. The total vote of the seven voting precincts stood 378 to 228 in favor of
removal, the majority of 150 being a crushing defeat for Darwin, as only 606
votes were cast in the whole county. There were probably not that many voters,
for feeling ran high, and the inducements for fraud and illegal voting was
strong. The county now has about 6,000 votes. Now came the real tug of war, to
determine what town, or point of the county, should get the third and new county
seat. Marshall and Auburn were strenuous candidates for the honor, and the vote
to settle which should possess the coveted prize came off in August, 1837. After
one of the hottest, fiercest, most bitter and acrimonious battles ever seen in
Clark County, Marshall, chiefly, it is said, through the moral honesty or
stinginess of James Hillebert, a wealthy citizen of Auburn, and the leader in
the fight for that town, was successful, by a rather close vote of 453 to 362, a
majority of only 91, the total vote for both sites being 815. As the vote on the
removal of the county seat from Darwin in March, IS37, was 606, while in August,
1837, four months afterwards, a total vote of 815, an increase of 209 votes, are
shown, it would appear that many were indifferent about the removal from Darwin
and did not vote, or that the usual proceedings, methods and appliances to
increase the vote for the respective competing towns, always seen in these
county seat wars, were not absent. It is not at all unlikely that the friends of
both towns left no tricks known to the trade of vote getting untried and
unpracticed to gain the coveted victory. The first, second and third terms of
the Circuit Court in Darwin were held in the tavern of John McClure, and the
fourth in the house of Jacob Harlan. The fifth convened May 8, 1828, in the
newly completed court house, and thereafter was held there until the removal of
the county seat to Marshall in 1838.

   The third Clark County court house, at Marshall, completed in 1839, was torn
down in 1887, to make room for the fourth, which was completely destroyed by
fire December 31, 1902. This fire broke out about 3 o'clock on that wintry
morning, and raged for more than five hours, despite the desperate efforts of
the fire department, aided by the citizens of Marshall and surrounding country.
The records and some little furniture were saved, but otherwise the loss of this
artistic and commodious building was complete. Steps were at once taken to
provide a temporary home for the officials and courts, the old D. D.
Doll-Brown-Morton-McMullen Bank building on North Hamilton Street, and parts of
the Knights of Pythias Temple, south of the public square, at the southeast
corner of Market and Clinton Streets, being rented for the purpose. The fifth
and last Clark County court house cost about $60,000, including changes in the
office arrangement and furniture. It is much larger than the one destroyed by
fire, while its arrangement is infinitely superior to it. A good deal of delay
and additional expense was experienced before the final completion of this
building, owing to ignorant and unskilled brickwork, faulty approaches,
defective cement and collapsing floors, but it is a remarkably good building and
an honor to the Board of Supervisors, committee on construction, the architects,
builders, contractors and taxpayers of the county. This last court house of
Clark County was dedicated on Saturday, July 2, 1904, the writer of these
histories, by request of the Board of Supervisors of the county, delivering the
dedicatory address. In closing his address upon that occasion, delivered in the
beautiful and ample Circuit Court room, on the north side of the building, he
said: "And now, my friends, with feelings of heartfelt thankfulness to the
architects who gave us the plans for this building, to the contractors and
sub-contractors for their final work, and to the county officials, especially
the present honored Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, for their zeal,
earnestness and laborious care to that useful and beneficent end, and at the
request, and by the authority of the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of
Clark County, I dedicate this splendid building to the uses and purposes of our
court and county officials, and to all the bar and people of Clark County, for
their uses, purposes, pleasures and enjoyments, for all time, or until such time
as the population, advancement and progress of our beloved county shall demand a
more pretentious and commodious building."

   The town (now city) of Marshall, and last county seat of Clark County, was
laid out October 3, 1835, by the gentlemen who owned the land upon which it was
to be located, W. B. Archer and Joseph Duncan, the latter of whom was afterwards
Governor and United States Senator of and from Illinois. The town was named in
honor of the greatest Chief Justice the American Union has ever known, or
perhaps ever will know. The proprietors made liberal donations of land and lots
for court house and other purposes. The first jail was a log one, as its
predecessors at Aurora and Darwin had been, and was located on the rear end of
the lot now owned and occupied by Ernest Howell as a residence, on West Market
Street. The first court, after the removal of the seat of justice to Marshall,
and before the new court house was finished, was held in a frame building, on
the site now occupied by the widow of Joseph Lutz, deceased. Succeeding courts,
before the completion of the court house, were held in a frame building south of
the public square, where I. F. Prichard has his undertaking and furniture
establishment. The county seat question was not agitated again for a few years,
but in 1848 the petitioners and memorializers induced the Illinois Legislature
to again submit the question as to the location of the county seat to a vote of
the people. The campaign was short and bitterly contested, and on the third
Monday in May. 1849, the opposing forces fought out the battle of the ballots,
on the question of taking the county seat away from Marshall, as they had voted
on taking it away from Darwin, but with a quite different result, for Marshall
won by the dangerously close vote of 771 to 640, a majority of only 131 in a
total vote of 1,411. Darwin stood by Marshall by a vote of 161 to 20; Clear
Creek, by a vote of 99 to 0, rather suspicious; Mill Creek by 34 to 12; York by
70 to 46; Melrose by 104 to 89, and, of course, Marshall voted for Marshall, or
rather against the removal by the vote of 194 to 2, a majority of 192 against
removal. Johnson, Melrose, Richland, Martinsville, Cumberland and Auburn
precincts voted for removal, but Auburn, that had its own eye on the county seat
for itself, as it had when the vote was taken to remove it to Darwin, and when
it was itself a candidate for the seat of justice honors, as against Marshall,
voted for removal by only 82 to 29 against it. From its organization, in 1819,
to 1854, the county government and legislative business were in the hands of
three commissioners, but on the 7th day of November, 1854, township organization
and its concomitant Board of Supervisors, consisting of one Supervisor from each
township, were adopted by a vote of 1,277 to 528, a majority of 749 in a total
vote of 1,805. The anxiety to hold the township offices of Supervisor, Town
Clerk, Assessor, Collector, Commissioners of Highways, Justices of the Peace and
Constables incident to each township under township organization, was too much
for the County Commissioner system, and so it has remained until this day. It
seems that no earthly power can change a county back to the system of three
County Commissioners after township organization has been once adopted. The
hostile influences are too numerous, too compact and too powerful to be
overcome. The County Court, at its December term, 1854, appointed Randolph Lee,
Charles H. Welsh and John B. Briscoe, Commissioners, to lay off the county into
townships; and, pursuant to these duties, they established the townships as they
exist now, as indicated in Chapter I of this History, with the exception that
Douglas Township was established in 1859, and Auburn Township, by lands taken
from Dolson, Martinsville, Marshall and Anderson Townships. Auburn is the
central township of Clark County, and was the last and fifteenth established.


Additional Comments:
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS
EDITED BY
NEWTON BATEMAN, LL.D.
PAUL SELBY, A. M.

PUBLISHED BY MUNSELL PUBLISHING CO., FOR MIDDLE WEST PUBLISHING CO.

AND HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY

EDITED BY
HON. H. C. BELL

ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
MIDDLE WEST PUBLISHING CO.
PUBLISHERS
1907

Entered according to act of Congress in the years 1894, 1899, 1900, and 1905 by
WILLIAM W. MUNSELL
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington


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