THOSE WHO WISH to believe that the pioneers dwelt at peace with one another and that brotherly love reigned supreme
in the early community should not read this chapter of Pike county history, drawn as it is from the official records
of the pioneer courts of justice. These records are proof positive that those days were a time of continuous strife,
when settler opposed settler and settlement fought settlement with a bitter and ferocity that is hard to believe.
We have related the records of those noted lawsuits arising out of the slavery and county seat unrest of 1824 wherein
the Atlas partisans fought John Shaw and his followers through the courts of Pike, Morgan, Greene and Adams counties,
the court docket at one time containing no less than a dozen pending charges against Shaw, either as principal
or accessory.
Following the August 1824 election, we find another great pioneer, John Wood, founder of Quincy and later lieutenant
governor and governor of Illinois, suing Shaw for slander and arraigning the Black Prince on that charge in Atlas.
Savagely the contest was waged in the Atlas court, John Shaw refusing to entrust his fate to a jury of his peers
in Pike county, where Leonard Ross, sheriff, was the summoner of juries. John Wood in those early days was a vigorous
adherent of the Ross party and cast his influence with the Rosses in the long struggle over the seat of justice.
At this time Wood had moved from his early log habitation near the site of modern New Canton and was dwelling with
the family of Jeremiah Rose in his (Wood's) log house on the site of modern Quincy. This house Wood had built when,
in December 1822, while engaged at the behest of the Pike county commissioners' court at Coles' Grove in opening
the early Fort Edwards trail into the northern wilds, he had come upon an enchanting spot in the wilderness. This
spot, where he thought he would be content to spend the remainder of his days, is that upon which the city of Quincy
now stands.
Wood appeared before Judge John Sawyer at the May 1825 term of the Atlas court and demanded, through his attorney,
John Reynolds, former supreme court justice who had presided in the earlier courts at Coles' Grove and Atlas, an
immediate joining of the issues with Shaw. Shaw, by his attorney, James Turney, then attorney general of the state,
asked for a change of venue to another county, alleging that he could not receive justice in the seat of the Rosses.
Judge Sawyer, having heard arguments on both sides and having weighed the evidence and taken into consideration
the general feeling of hostility against Shaw in Pike county granted the motion of the defendant for a venue change
and the case was ordered to Madison county for trial.
In this case, heard in the rude 16 by 18 log courtroom at Atlas, appeared two future governors of Illinois, John
Wood, the plaintiff, who succeeded Bissell as governor on the latter's death in 1860, and John Reynolds, plaintiff's
counsel, who became the fourth governor in 1830. John Wood at this time was a youth of 26 years.
On May 27, 1825, Sheriff Leonard Ross returned a "non est" in the Wood case against Shaw, and on motion
of the defendant by his attorney, it was ordered by the court that attachments issue against Peter Wood and Hugh
R. Coulter (Colter), returnable at the next term, "to show cause why they should not be fined for a contempt
in not appearing as witnesses, being served with subpoenas in this cause, etc."
At the October 1825 term, Wood and Colter, both of whom resided in Fulton county, appeared in court to answer to
the attachments and rendered their excuses to the court, which were accepted and they were discharged from the
attachments.
On October 29, 1825, the slander case of Wood vs. Shaw was dismissed pursuant to the following records:
"This cause having been ordered to Madison county circuit court on application of defendant, the parties this
day came into Court and entered into the following agreement, to wit, the Plaintiff renounces and withdraws his
said action, and that the defendant is to pay all legal costs incurred, except the traveling fees of witnesses,
and the attendance of Peter Wood and Hugh R. Coulter, against whom attachments issued and who appeared at this
term to answer to said attachments, and further that said Shaw is to pay the fees to the Sheriff of Fulton for
traveling from his house to P. Wood's and H. R. Coulter's to serve them with subpoenas."
Among the numerous indictments returned by Pike county grand juries following the 1824 election was one charging
John Shaw with an assault upon members of the Atlas party. Leonard Ross, William Ross, Henry J. Ross, Nicholas
Hansen and James W. Whitney were the prosecuting witnesses upon this indictment. This case against Shaw was prosecuted
in the Pike county court for three years and finally was taken to Greene county court on a change of venue, Shaw
being sustained in his plea that a fair trial could not be had in the county of Pike.
Other personal encounters arising from the county seat contests resulted in an assault indictment against William
Luckit and assault and battery indictments against John Knight, Henry Smith, John Colter (a sturdy partisan of
Shaw and election judge in Cap au Gris precinct), James Greer and Hesekiah Spelman. Luckit was fined $10 and Knight
$50 on pleas of guilty. Garret Van Dusen, the famous early miller on Blue River (now known as Big Blue Creek),
was indicted for an affray and was also indicted jointly with Charles Peterson on another affray charge. Other
affray indictments were returned against James B. Pettit, Thomas McCraney and William Swan. McCraney was the early
settler in what is now Kinderhook township, for whom McCraney's Creek was named.
Silas McGuire was indicted for an assault and battery. Garret Van Dusen was indicted for perjury and David Dutton,
noted commissioner, went upon Van Dusen's bond; the case when brought to trial before a jury resulted in an acquittal.
Quartus Hitchcock was indicted for an assault and battery, and Joel Meacham for misconduct as a justice of the
peace, of which charge he was later found not guilty. Levi Gilbert sued John Shaw for assault and battery.
Following the 1824 election, suits in the name of the people were brought by the Atlas party against each of the
Shaw election judges in the Coles' Grove and Cap au Gris precincts, namely, John Bolter, Pendleton Lamb, Antoine
Ramontre, William C. Brown, Joshua Twichell and Asa Carrico. The Shaw partisans retaliated with suits against two
Atlas partisans (judges in Franklin precinct), namely, Garret Van Dusen and Thomas Bristow. The defendant Shaw
judges were represented by James Turney who, at the May 1825 term of court, moved the court to quash the writ in
each cause, and "after full arguments and due deliberation had, it is the opinion of the Court that the Plaintiff
take nothing by this suit but that said writ be quashed, and further ordered that defendant recover of plaintiff
his costs about his defense in this behalf expended," this order being repeated in each of the six causes.
John Reynolds, representing the people in the cases against Van Dusen and Bristow, moved that the causes be dismissed
at cost of the plaintiff, which motion was allowed.
John Bolter, a defendant in one of the above suits and a defendant in the foregoing action for assault, was one
of the most prominent of the early settlers in the southern part of the county, in the region now known as Calhoun.
He was the first postmaster in the first postoffice established in what is now Point precinct in the early town
of Milan, located a few miles below the present site of Golden Eagle, the town of Milan being one of the long vanished
towns of that section.
Joshua Twichell, another of the defendants in the 1824 election suits, arrived in the county in 1822 with a large
family aboard a keel boat which landed at Coles' Grove. He had been a blacksmith in New York state and after arriving
here he engaged in his trade at Coles' Grove for about a half year and then moved to the present site of Brussels
where he started a shop.
His son Chesley, according to Carpenter, brought iron from St. Louis in a canoe, and this iron was used in making
the first iron plow that was ever used in the county. Mr. Twichell also ironed the first wagon used in what is
now Calhoun county. This wagon was made by Twichell for his son-in-law, Major Roberts.
A duel, arising out of the county seat controversy, and so far as the records disclose the only duel ever fought
on Pike county soil, resulted in a criminal suit in the early courts that was continued on the docket for several
terms. Two men named McMullen and Martin were indicted for dueling and although alien capiases were issued and
directed to various sheriffs in other counties, these two men eluded arrest and were never brought to trial. The
circumstances of the duel, aside from the bare origin of the controversy, are unknown, the files in this case,
as in many others, having been destroyed in the fire that consumed the clerk's office at Atlas in the winter of
the Big Snow, 1830-31.
In the period immediately following the election of 1824, we find many other suits at law, both criminal and civil,
arising out of that memorable election and the heated campaign that preceded it. The court records are given at
some length in order that the court procedures of those times may become incorporated in this history of a colorful
period hitherto unknown to modern Pike county.
We find suits being brought, following the 1824 election, by Nicholas Hansen against William C. Brown, one of the
Shaw election judges, and against Simon Crosier, on charges growing out of the election. We find Belus Jones, noted
citizen of the early times and first Pike county constable in 1821, suing John Bolter, another noted citizen and
a Shaw partisan and one of his election judges, charging Bolter with assault and battery. Bolter, found guilty
of assault by a jury several years later, appeals for a new trial and is denied.
George W. Hight, named clerk of the circuit court in 1825 to succeed the ousted Whitney, charged with malconduct
in office, is himself inducted for assault, for an affray, for malpractice as clerk of the circuit court, and four
times indicted for palpable omission of duty as clerk of the circuit court, these numerous indictments being returned
by the grand jury at the October 1825 term of court at Atlas. The cases against Hight, a Shaw follower, dragged
through the Atlas court until June, 1828, when he secured a change of venue to Adams county.
Henry J. Ross is impleaded with Hight in an indictment charging an affray, and Ross at the October 1826 term stands
trial before a jury and is acquitted. Hight in 1827 furnishes Lewis C. K. Hamilton as his surety and carries his
defense on a change of venue into the Adams county court.
Out of the county seat excitement of the 1820s arose another great legal battle in the early courts wherein Thomas
Ferguson (famous proprietor of Ferguson's Ferry on the Illinois river near the lower end of modern Calhoun), together
with Mason Cockerell and Moses Buchanan, was indicted for riot. Another case was that of Samuel Chidester suing
John Knight for assault and battery incident to the heated controversy of 1824, Knight eventually being discharged
from his arrest.
The Shaw candidate for county commissioners in the 1824 election, claiming their seats under Lord Coke Whitney's
certifications, proceeded to usurp control of the county government at the succeeding September term of court.
Their reign, however, was brief, being limited to the September term. Elected three to one over the Ross candidates
under the certified returns of Clerk Whitney, they were actually defeated by a few votes when the Atlas ballots,
suppressed in Whitney's returns, were taken into consideration. And so, at the succeeding December 1824 term, we
find the court again in the hands of the Ross commissioners, namely, James M. Seeley, Levi Hadley and Rufus Brown.
The latter, early tavernkeeper at Atlas, in some manner not revealed in the records had taken the place of Zepheniah
Ames, the third of the Ross candidates in the election.
The first act of the Atlas commissioners, upon convening court for the December term, was to revoke and rescind
an order passed by the Shaw commissioners in September, which order had rescinded all orders issued by the Atlas
commissioners ousted by John Reynolds and then remaining unpaid, except salaries of county officers.
The Atlas commissioners also began suits in circuit court against James Nixon and Ebenezer Smith, the Shaw commissioners,
charging them with usurpation of office and seeking to recover in behalf of the county.
Action was also begun by the new commissioners against Nathaniel Shaw, John Shaw's kinsman, who had been appointed
county treasurer by the Shaw commissioners who had ousted Henry J. Ross, the appointee of the Atlas party. The
suit against Shaw was to recover county funds alleged to be in his hands and withheld by him from the Atlas commissioners.
The suit was brought in circuit court but when, on March 8, 1825, Shaw appeared in court and exhibited his accounts,
which were taken into consideration, and he paid over $40, the balance of money remaining in his hands, the suit
was compromised ‘on condition of his paying the costs of suit and on his doing so the suit to be dismissed at the
next (May) term."
The indictments against James W. Whitney, charged with malpractice as clerk of the circuit court, clerk of the
county commissioners' court and as justice of the peace, were no further pressed upon Whitney's agreement to resign
as county clerk, he having been removed as circuit clerk. At a special term of commissioners' court at Atlas on
April 27, 1825, with all three commissioners (Hadley, Seeley and Brown) present, we find the following record of
Whitney's resignation:
"Ordered that the resignation of James W. Whitney be accepted and copied:
"To the County Commissioners of Pike County -
Gentlemen: I do hereby resign the office of Clerk of the Honorable Court over which you preside and am with great
respect your most obedient and humble servant. Signed - J. W. WHITNEY."
Follows the additional record:
"Ordered that Wm. Ross, Esq., administer the several oaths required by law to George W. Britton as Clerk of
said Court, and the said George W. Britton thereupon appeared and took the several oaths as aforesaid."
Pursuant to the agreement relative to Whitney's resignation, James Turney, the attorney general of the state, appeared
at the ensuing May term of circuit court and announced that he would not further prosecute the cases against Whitney.
Whitney, who apparently deserted the Atlas party in the 1824 election, later returned to the fold and became prominent
in the counsels of that party. He had a considerable knowledge of law and legal practice, and we find him in later
terms of circuit court acting as counsel for the Pike county commissioners in various actions for recovery brought
against former Shaw commissioners.
Thus, at the April term of county commissioners' court in 1825, the records of that court heretofore from the beginning
of the county's history in the hand of My Lord Coke Whitney appear in a new hand that lacks the classic flourish
of that peerless penman of the early day.
It is fitting that we pause here for a brief sketch of that most colorful character of pioneer times, known in
the early settlement as My Lord Coke Whitney, from whose treasured records this history has been so largely drawn.