CHAPTER XXX.

THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR OVER THE SITE OF THE COUNTY SEAT.

HE attempt in 1836 to locate the county seat had proven a failure. The county business had been transacted in the meantime in various places in the village. The proprietors of Winnebago did not consider the refusal of their deed of cession to the county, noted in Chapter XII., as a finality. On that very day began the famous controversy over the location of the county seat, which was continued for seven years with great spirit, and not a little bitterness on all sides. The proprietors of Winnebago had expended considerable money in their town plat, and they were anxious to have the county buildings commenced at once, and thus settle the question. A favorable decision would insure increased value and ready sales of their town lots. On the other hand, the county commissioners opposed the site of Winnebago, and placed every obstacle in the way of such location. Various propositions were made by the proprietors during this and the succeeding year to induce the commissioners to take some action that would secure them in the location that had been previously made. All these overtures were either refused or evaded. The persistent refusal of the county commissioners led to state legislation.

By an act of the general assembly, approved March 2, 1839, the question was submitted to a popular vote. It was made the duty of the clerk of the county commissioners' court to give notice of an election to be held on the first Monday in May, 1839. The law provided that if it should appear that within one hundred of a majority of all the votes cast were in favor of the town of Winnebago, that town should remain the permanent county seat. But if any other place, after the first election, should receive a majority of all the votes given, such place should be the seat of justice. If more than two places received votes, and no one place received a majority, there should be an election held on the first Monday of each succeeding month, dropping off at each election, the place receiving the smallest number of votes, until some one place should receive a majority of all the votes polled.

SIX ASPIRANTS FOR COURT HOUSE.

155

These provisions gave Winnebago a decided advantage; but even then the town was unable to win the prize. At the election six aspirants received votes, as follows: Rockford, three hundred and twenty; Winnebago, seventy-five; Roscoe, two; Willow Creek, five; Pecatonica, one; Scipio, one. Total vote cast, four hundred and four, of which Rockford had a majority over all of two hundred and thirty-six. In commenting on this election, the late Judge Church said: "Whether there was any Osawattomie [evidently another form of the word Pottawatomie] voting at that election, I am unable to say, but one thing is certain: there were two hundred more votes polled than at the general election in August following."

The prospective village of Winnebago reached the highest point of all its greatness on the day when its ambitious claims were rejected by the county commissioners' court. Like Cardinal Wolsey, it fell like a bright exhalation in the evening. From that time it began to decline. In April, 1844, many of the lots were sold by the sheriff to satisfy delinquent taxes; and in 1847 the plat was vacated by a special act of the legislature. Some years later Mrs. Campbell, widow of Major Campbell, by her attorney, appeared in Rockford, and made a claim for dower interest, on the ground that when her husband took the benefit of the bankrupt law, he assigned his interest in the Winnebago village property without her consent. Some were intimidated into paying these claims; and others successfully contested them.

Charles Reed was an excellent judge of land, and traveled from Fox river to Apple river, selecting and making claims. Mr. Reed was a native of Virginia. He served in the war of 1812, and was taken prisoner at Detroit, when Hull surrendered. He again enlisted, and was in the battle of the Thames, when Tecumseh was killed. Mr. Reed first settled in Illinois at Joliet. He was one of the commissioners to locate the county seat of Ogle county in 1836. Mr. Reed was influential in securing the passage of the act for the organization of Winnebago county. From Winnebago village he removed to Rockton, where he died August 26, 1863, at the age of seventy-nine years. Mr. Reed was highly esteemed as a citizen, neighbor and friend.

In pursuance of the popular vote in favor of Rockford, the county commissioners, on June 8, 1839, selected the public square on the east side of the river as the site for the court house. Anson Barnum and Daniel S. Haight were authorized

to accept stone and other building material. A large quantity of brick and lumber was contributed by the citizens. This material remained on the public square for a long time, because the county had no money to continue the work. At a special session held June 17, the court selected the southeast corner of block nine as a site for a jail. This is the site now occupied by the Rockford Gas Light and Coke Company. No jail, however, was built upon that location.

At the session of September 28, 1841, a proposition was submitted to the commissioners' court, to furnish a suitable jail and quarters for the county offices in West Rockford until permanent buildings could be constructed. This proposal was signed by Messrs. George Haskell, Charles I. Horsman, Abiram Morgan, John W. Taylor, David D. Alling, Nathaniel Loomis, Ephraim Wyman, Horatio Nelson, Derastus Harper and Isaiah Lyon. Upon executing a bond in the penal sum of one thousand dollars, this proposition was accepted. December 11th these gentlemen reported to the commissioners' court that the building for the county offices was ready for use, and the same was accepted by the court. This was a frame structure on the southwest corner of Main and Chestnut streets, opposite the Hotel Nelson. This building was occupied by the court until a court house was built, and only recently torn down to make room for a brick block. The donors, at this December session, were given an extension of five months to complete the jail. This was a log structure, about twelve feet square, with plank door, and window barred with irons set into the logs above and below. It stood east of the present court house, in the same block. Whenever a desperate character was confined therein it was necessary to station a guard. Previous to the erection of this primitive prison, the nearest jail was at Galena. When I. N. Cunningham was sheriff, he owned a substantially built house a short distance from town, and his brother William once prevented a prisoner from escaping at night by fastening one end of a chain to his ankle and the other to the ankle of the prisoner, and both were secured to the strong puncheon floor. Sixty years ago William Cunningham was a dangerous man to resist. The old log jail did duty after a fashion until the brick jail was completed.

About this time a controversy arose concerning the precise meaning of the statute under which the election of May, 1839, had been held. That portion of the third section of the law

OPINIONS OF THE ROCKFORD BAR.

157

enclosed in parenthesis was ambiguous. The point at issue was whether the law actually authorized an election to select a seat of justice, or merely to decide the general question of removal. This question was before the commissioners' court at its September session in 1841. Each commissioner held a different opinion. William Hulin held that the county seat had been removed from Winnebago, but had never been relocated. Ezra S. Cable maintained that all the provisions of the law had not been complied with, and therefore the county seat remained as originally located. William E. Dunbar believed the county seat had been actually removed to Rockford. This deadlock must be broken before progress was possible. May 10, 1842, the commissioners' court requested the bar of the city to submit opinions in writing concerning the legal effect of the popular vote. Opinions were prepared by Anson S. Miller, Francis Burnap, Thomas D. Robertson, James M. Wight and Jason Marsh. Mr. Miller's opinion was quite elaborate. The attorneys were unanimous in the opinion that the county seat had been changed from Winnebago to Rockford, in accordance with the evident intent of the law. At the session of July, 1842, the commissioners' court authorized the judges of election in the several precincts to take the sense of the voters at the August election on the question whether the county buildings should be permanently located in East or West Rockford. Several precincts did not vote on the question; but the general result was favorable to the West side, inasmuch as the temporary location of the county offices on that side had already given it a degree of prestige. This vote had no legal effect, however, because the law had given the commissioners' court full power in the premises. But it did have a certain persuasive influence.

In April, 1843, Daniel S. Haight, E. H. Potter, Hollis H. Holmes, Laomi Peake, Daniel Howell and John A. Brown, of the East side, submitted a proposition to the county commissioners to build a court house and jail, to cost four thousand dollars. This proposal was considered, but complications prevented its acceptance. A few days later, April 22d, citizens of West Rockford made a similar proposition. On condition that the commissioners select the site on the West side, the citizens agreed to erect such buildings as the county commissioners should direct, and according to such plan and finish as the commissioners should furnish for a court house, county offices and jail, the said buildings to be commenced before the first day of

June next, and the jail to be finished before the first day of January, 1844. The remainder of the said buildings were to be finished by the first day of November, 1844. The donors were to perfect and convey to the county a good title to the land on which the said buildings should stand, to the amount of two and a half acres. This proposition was signed by Messrs. George Haskell, Charles I. Horsman, H. W. Loomis, M. Burner, Charles Hall, Thomas D. Robertson, George W. Dewey, David D. Alling, H. R. Maynard, Alden Thomas, S. Skinner, George Barrows, John Fisher, Derastus Harper, Daniel Dow.

Nothing had been done on the East side toward erecting county buildings with the material which had been contributed; and the proposition from the West side citizens was accepted, with five conditions. These were: first, that security be given to the acceptance of the commissioners or any two of them, in term time or vacation within twenty days; second, that the security be a bond for twenty thousand dollars, and the buildings be worth not less than six thousand dollars; third, that said bond be placed in the hands of the clerk of the court within three days from its acceptance; fourth, that the subscribers to the proposition, or a majority of them, enter into a contract in writing within twenty days to erect the buildings as offered in their proposition; fifth, that the contract be placed in the hands of the clerk of the court within three days from its approval. The commissioners ordered that block twenty-five in West Rockford be the site of the buildings.

Thus closed a contest which had continued for seven years. An opinion prevails to this day that the cession of the mile-strip to Boone county insured the location of the county buildings on the west side of the river; and that the voters on the strip, if they had remained in this county, would have held the balance of power, which would have been exercised in the election of two commissioners from the east side of the river. The official records are clearly against this tradition. The county seat was permanently located in April, 1843; whereas, the election on the mile-strip did not occur until the following month. The result was due to a single citizen. William Hulin was elected a county commissioner in 1841, while a resident of Rockton, on the east side of the river. During his term of office he removed to West Rockford. Mr. Hulin's friends claim that his sympathies were always with the West side; while others maintain that this change of residence was quite naturally followed by a