Henry County IL Archives History - Books .....Morristown 1877
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Book Title: History Of Henry County, The

MORRISTOWN.

    Among the provisions for the settlement of Morristown was one that a public
house should be built out of the general fund, and that within a certain time
(one year), each of the colonists should erect a dwelling-house upon his land. A
very "considerable" building for those times was erected out of the funds
proposed to be applied in that way, and a few, very few (three or four),
dwelling-houses were built as per contract. The town plat was just one mile
square; large enough in all conscience, and if it could have been peopled the
county would have been much the gainer. In the center of the plat was a public
ground of 440 feet square. The lots were 45 feet front and varying in length
from 155 to 270 feet.

    When the settlement first commenced the prospect seemed very fair for a
rapid increase of population; this was anticipated by a Mr. Crocker, who, just
before the Morristown entry, had entered what is known as Crocker's Grove
(sometimes called Brown's), as well as a large tract of prairie, all of which
was near by the lands soon after entered by the New York Company and named
Morristown. He had bought for the purpose of farming with an abundance of elbow
room, and expressed his regrets that range for his cattle would so soon be
limited by the improvements of that company. It turned out, however, that little
or no improvement, beyond the few farms at first commenced, was made.

    This, then, was the extent of the improvements in and about Morristown when
it was the county seat. It was in better condition to accommodate courts, etc.,
than was Richmond at its inauguration as seat of justice for the county, and the
public could look for better accommodations than at the last named point. But
dissatisfaction with the location grew apace, and it was soon a fixed fact that
a contest for the removal and a re-location of the county seat was unavoidable.
In fact it began as soon as the decision of the Commissioners was known. As
Geneseo was the-only point that competed with Morristown for the honor
conferred, it is natural to suppose that that was the point at which the great
body of the disaffected would endeavor to establish their county town. But it
was soon ascertained that there were several candidates for that honor. General
dissatisfaction prevailed on account of the location as it then stood; four men
out of five probably being anxious to remove it on account of the great distance
to which they had to travel to attend courts. The site itself was delightful,
and those principally interested in its property were enterprising, intelligent
and popular. Other sites, however, equally as eligible for beauty and salubrity,
and much more central, could be picked out of every third section in any of the
more central townships; and to one of these points the people determined to take
it.

    The county courts were held at Geneseo till the Summer or Fall of 1841. The
first circuit court held in Morristown was in May, 1842, the1 last in May, 1844.
As stated before, the legislature authorized the holding of courts in Geneseo
till suitable accommodations could be prepared at the county scat. The public
house at Morristown was conveyed to the county, and a contract for "improving"
it was made with David Gove and Nathaniel Walters, an order for seventy dollars
being issued for their benefit December 9, 1840. On June 28, 1841, a contract
was made with Thos. W. Corey and George Brandenburg, for the erection of the
COMMODIOUS court-house, 18 by 24 feet, one and a half stories high, and also for
the building of a jail, according to specifications and contract made with
another party for building one at Richmond. The public house, now (then) the
county house, was rented to Corey and Brandenburg for two years for the sum of
one hundred dollars, they to furnish a suitable courtroom for the use of all
courts of the county during the two years, in which time they were to complete
the public buildings. The courthouse was built. The jail was a mere structure on
paper; the uncertainty of there being any use for it in that place causing the
court to postpone its erection.

    The dissatisfaction with Morristown as the county town was so extreme that
some of those who had been most determined to honor Geneseo with it, expressed a
willingness to have it located at some other point than that of their choice,
even at Sugar Tree Grove, rather than have it remain at Morristown.
Commissioners had twice been appointed by the Legislature to locate a seat of
justice for the county, and were sworn to study the interests, immediate and
prospective, of the population in determining the site. The first selection it
seems was a judicious one. But the people were dissatisfied with it, and a
change was effected. The second was judicious or not, just as the parties might
think. We can imagine no good reason for the choice save the liberal donation
for the county. That it was liberal is certainly true, but the loss to which the
citizens of the county would have been yearly subjected on account of the
remoteness of the site from the center would have counterbalanced, four times
over, the extra liberality of the enterprising proprietors of Morristown. This
the people knew, and while determined to effect the removal of the county
capital, they were very generally determined to designate the point at which it
should be located. It is believed that this feeling of distrust in Commissioners
possessed nearly every citizen of the county, and during the greater part of the
agitation of the question no one proposed a resort to the old process; the
reasonableness of the demand for a removal was acquiesced in by the citizens of
Morristown themselves. Indeed, Joshua Harper, one of the donors of the county,
and principally interested in the prosperity of Morristown, was, in 1842, a
candidate for the legislature, and if he had shown the least disposition to
oppose the wishes of the people he could have got no support. He distinctly
stated that if elected representative, and a majority of the voters of the
county sent a petition for the county seat to be removed into the Winnebago
swamps, into the swamps it should go. At least his influence should not prevent
it. He was elected, and no man was ever more faithful to the interests of his
constituents.

    Geneseo was the point to which the majority in the northern part of the
county .wished the seat of justice removed. A point near Sugar Tree Grove was
selected by the southern. Some manoeuvering was resorted to to get an admission
from opponents that a site on Section 7, 15, 3, was an eligible point for the
location. All that was done, however, in the way of manoeuver was to get the
admission before the name of the owner of the property should be known. The
owner was Rev. Ithamar Pillsbury, of Andover. He was active in his efforts to
secure the first location at Andover, but the position of J. M. Allan was too
strong for him up to that time, and after there was feud between the two points
Andover and Geneseo, and it was thought best by the Pillsbury party that he
should not be known in the transaction till suitable admissions had been made by
the other party. We have said the "Pillsbury party," but the prime mover, the
great laborer in behalf of the point near Sugar Tree Grove was Joseph Tillson,
Esq. The "Judge," as he is usually called, was an early settler, and an active
man in some important matters of the county. Canvassing for signatures to a
petition locating the town near Sugar Tree Grove-at what is now
Cambridge-progressed steadily, though with very variable results, as different
localities were entered. The petition was drawn up in Wethersfield, by Col.
Wells it is believed. John Kilvington circulated it at Wethersfield, about
Barren Grove, on Spring Creek, and obtained a few signatures in Geneseo, after
which the Judge took charge of it. When it was ascertained that a majority of
the voters of the county had signed the petition to have the county seat located
on Section 7, 15, 3, a remonstrance was got up at Geneseo against the location,
with a petition added that Commissioners be again appointed to locate a county
seat. It is believed J. M. Allan, whose home was then at Geneseo, was the most
active man in behalf of his locality. The contest was warm. The Judge sent the
petition north of Green River for signatures, and it was returned with a single
additional name affixed. He took it himself, went over the same ground, and
obtained forty signatures, Brandenburg leading off. He also re-canvassed the
settlement at Andover. The petition was sent to Oxford, where a friend promised
to circulate and return it. The time for its reception arrived, but no petition
came; the Judge was in a flurry; time was getting precious; Wm. A. Ayers
volunteered to look up the missing paper, and get such signatures as had not
been appended; he found it shut up in a chest, where it had been placed for safe
keeping, with a very few additional names on it. Mr. A. pushed the matter along,
and without difficulty obtained the signature of every man he met in that
locality. It was extensively signed throughout the southern part of the county.
A few residents on Spring Creek who signed the petition to locate at Cambridge,
it is known, afterwards signed the remonstrance.

    The petition to have Cambridge the new seat of government of the county was
forwarded to Colonel John Buford, of Rock Island, who then represented this
district in the Senate. A bill was brought before the Senate re-locating the
county seat of Henry County. It passed both houses on petition of a majority of
the citizens of the county.

    The bill locating the county seat of Henry County was approved by the
Governor February 21, 1843. It provided that the courts should be held at
Morristown till accommodations should be provided at the new location. It also
required the re-conveyance of all property that had been deeded to the county at
Morristown, and the refunding of money donated.

    The difficulty of pleasing the citizens of Henry County in the location of
their county town was a matter well known outside. The truth is, there was very
little in the immediate vicinity of the location except a fine grove of timber
to demonstrate the wisdom of fixing the seat of justice at that point. There was
no house north of Sugar Tree Grove nearer than those immediately about Geneseo.
West there were but two or three until within a mile of Andover. In the grove,
and at the "East End," a settlement had fairly commenced. South of what is now
the Town of Cambridge, Red Oak, nearly six miles distant, was the nearest
settlement. There was no Bishop Hill Colony, no Galva, and no one in that
township but James Bonham, at Hickory Grove, and two or three in the northeast
corner of the town. A good settlement existed at Wethersfield and along Barren
Grove in the southeast corner of the county; but at Wethersfield an
anti-Cambridge feeling existed to a small extent, which grew out of a desire of
those malcontents, or the most of them, to be annexed to the County of Stark. At
Oxford, in the southeast corner of the county, and about Richland Grove, west of
Andover, a few families had collected. The settlement at Andover was one of the
most flourishing in the county. Ten miles northwest was a cluster of three or
four houses, and a respectable settlement a few miles further, on Rock River.
All the settlements in the southern part of the county (except the slightest
opposition at Wethersfield), favored the location, but how was a town to be
built? Men and money were required. There was but little immigration to the
county or state, and where were numbers and dollars to be obtained, was the
question of the hour.

MORRISTOWN COLONY.

    In the Winter of 1835-'6, a notice was inserted in several of the New York
city daily papers, calling a meeting of persons interested in Western
colonization. This was held in Congress Hall, and at a subsequent meeting to
further consider this matter, a colony was formed and organized under the name
of the New York Colony. At these meetings some forty or fifty persons became
members of the colony. Charles Oakley, Esq. (now deceased), once Fund
Commissioner of the State of Illinois, took a leading part in all these
transactions. He had been prospecting out West, and gave a glowing description
of the wonderful "prairie country." At the close of these meetings an agreement
was drawn up and signed by the colonists, authorizing Charles Oakley and C. C.
Wilcox (now of Chicago) as trustees, to proceed to Illinois and locate about a
township of land in such part of the state as they might think for the best
interest of the members of the colony; the intention being to enter land
somewhere near the Illinois River. But other parties having preceded them to the
designed location, which was probably in Bureau County, near or upon the ground
now occupied by the Providence Colony, they proceeded into Henry County, and
selected their land in Townships 16 and 17-some 30 sections, nearly 20,000
acres. Every individual of the colony bound himself to erect within two years a
house or building to cost some specified sum, about $200, on his land, and in
case of neglect the land was to revert to the colonists, with, however, this
unfortunate condition attached: That the colonists, through their trustees, had
the privilege of taking the land from those parties failing to fulfill their
part of the contract, and paying three-dollars per acre for the same, or double
the cost of their land. The result proved that four-fifths of the members
preferred the hundred per cent, advance to the hardships of Western life, and
did not build; and ere two years passed the panic of 1837-'8 rendered the other
parties unwilling or unable to fulfill their part. Oakley and Wilcox were to
receive for their services twenty-five cents per acre for locating these lands,
and for surveys and incidental expenses. When surveyed and the town laid out on
some eligible spot near the center of the location, the lands and lots were to
be put up at auction, and the colonists were to select their property-eight lots
in town being distributed with each quarter section. The colonists were to bid
for the preference or choice of lands and lots. At this distribution, which was
in the Summer or Autumn of 1836 (the lands were entered in June of that year),
only a few persons were present. The majority of the colonists acted through
their agents. There was paid as "preference money," for the choice of these
lands, some $6,000 or $7,000, some paying as high as $400 for the choice of a
quarter section. After the selection, the balance were distributed by the
trustees at their discretion, each member getting the number of acres for which
he had paid. This preference money was to be held as trust, and appropriated for
the benefit of the colonists as follows: First, to have a colony house built, in
which the colonists could live until their residences could be erected; this was
to cost some $3,000. Second, to build a mill and school-house, or to be
appropriated as the colonists might desire, or distributed among members.

    Few came that season. Messrs. Oakley and C. C. Williams remained but a short
time. The colony lands were surveyed by Arba M. Seymour, the County Surveyor. A
log house was erected in Morristown, and a colony house contracted for, and
afterwards built. This was a fine large building two stories high, and well
finished, the latter being done by R. R. Stewart, Esq., of Geneseo. This
building was erected upon a lot owned by Chas. Oakley, Esq. It was afterwards
sold by Col. Oakley to Joel Wells, whose widow now occupies it. A mill was also
built upon Green River upon land owned by Charles Oakley. In the Fall of the
year 1836 speculation was still high. Pre-emptions on farms on Rock River with
small improvements were valued at $15 to $25 per acre. These prices were for
lands in the vicinity of the timber, as prairie land was considered worthless by
western men.

    Joshua Harper, N. W. Washburne, Luke C. Sheldon, Chas. W. Davenport, Jr. and
_____ Tompkins were all of the original colonists that were here in 1836. In
1837, John Appleton and Chas. W. Davenport, Sr. and family, came, and with them
the venerable father of Mrs. Davenport and Thos. Fitch, who died at Morristown a
few years after at the advanced age of 80 years. These people, with a few
others, comprising in all about ten families, scattered over some ten miles of
prairie, which constituted the settlement for some twelve or fourteen years.
After that time, a new exodus from the East again sent an army westward of good,
substantial citizens-a considerable number of whom settled on Morristown
prairie, and made it what it now is-one of the best settlements in Henry County.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

THE HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY, ILLINOIS, ITS TAX-PAYERS AND VOTERS;
CONTAINING, ALSO, A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY; A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE STATE;
MAP OF THE COUNTY: A BUSINESS DIRECTORY: AN ABSTRACT OF EVERY-DAY LAWS; WAR
RECORD OF HENRY COUNTY; OFFICERS OF SOCIETIES, LODGES, ETC., ETC.

CHICAGO: H. F. KETT. & CO., 15 LAKESIDE BUILDING.

1877.


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