THE NORTHERN REACHES of Pike county and of Illinois were still sparsely populated in 1824. Peoria was laid out
on or near the site of early Fort Clark in 1826. Even as late as 1830, when John Reynolds was inaugurated fourth
governor, Illinois, north of Peoria, with the exception of the settlement around the lead mines at Fever River
(now Galena), boasted not to exceed two whites to the square mile.
The journals of the fourth General Assembly, convening in Vandalia, the state capital, on November 15, 1824, reflect
the wilderness conditions then prevailing in Illinois. Nicholas Hansen, as we have seen in a previous chapter,
was seated in the lower house of the fourth Assembly as the member from Pike and Fulton counties, after the House
had unanimously rejected the claims of John Shaw to the seat, Shaw alleging that Hansen had obtained his seat by
fraud. At this session of the General Assembly, Pike county, mother of 32 counties and six parts of counties, was
reduced to its present boundaries, John Shaw initiating the movement to break up the great county into a number
of new counties.
Strange indeed to the people of today appear the functions of the early legislatures. In the journals of the fourth
Assembly we find the state legislative body engaged in laying out roads, granting ferry licenses, providing bridges,
taking measures to control the Indians, and even considering petitions for divorce. At this session, action is
taken to lay out a road from "the seat of justice in Sangamon county to Paris in Edgar county," and another
road is proposed from "the seat of justice in Sangamon county to Naples in Morgan county." On December
7, Hansen presented the petition of Abner Eads "praying permission to operate a ferry across the Illinois
river at Fort Clark." On December 13, Hansen presented the petition of "sundry persons residing in the
attached part of Pike county, praying that the Indians may be restrained from hunting in the vicinity of the settlements,"
which petition was referred to the "committee on propositions and grievances."
Indian warfare still raging in the northern Pike county wilderness in 1824, as may be seen from the following account
printed in the St. Louis Enquirer and reprinted in the Illinois Intelligencer at Vandalia under date of September
9, 1824, the information of the account being from the Indian agent at Fort Armstrong, then in Pike county, near
the site of modern Rock Island.
"A war party of Sauk Indians returning to their village in this vicinity, on the 8th instant, from an expedition
against the Sioux, discovered on August 27 (1824) the trail of a large party of Sioux, which they followed for
two days and on the evening of the second day they found several large pits which had been dug for defense, and
found a great number of cattle killed with arrows, also one horse. Soon after they heard the sound of drums and
knew they were in the vicinity of a Sioux war party. The drums ceased beating about 12 at night, and the party
of 45 young men attacked the band an hour or two before daybreak, killed 15 and took one prisoner, a girl of ten
or twelve years of age, and retreated without the loss of a man.
"It was not long until they found themselves surrounded by a numerous party of Sioux and forced to fight their
way through and in doing so lost their prisoner and had 8 killed and 2 wounded, bringing the wounded in with them.
Closely pursued, they lost several of their horses and most of their blankets and returned nearly naked and in
a state of starvation. The Sauk suppose the Sioux to have belonged to the Sussetong or Sassetoah band and that
the cattle found dead was the same that crossed the DesMoines about 60 days since. The drove of 100 head was in
charge of five Americans and two Frenchmen who had ten horses and mules and were supposedly bound for St. Peter's.
The Sauk saw one of the horses and a mule that belonged to the drovers in possession of the Sioux the morning of
the action and they are of the opinion the drovers had been massacred by them."
And now, John Shaw, schooled in the Indian wars and relentless as the Indians themselves in pursuit of his objective,
is seen developing a new line of attack upon the growing power of the Rosses. Defeated by the Ross party and made
a defendant in a dozen suits, both civil and criminal, in the Pike county courts, he resolves to break away from
the dominion of the Rosses and establish a kingdom of his own. In this he has the backing of those great Shaw and
Coles' Grove protagonists whose fortunes we have followed in this history of early times.
Up to the fourth legislature go John Shaw and the partisans of Coles' Grove, petitioning for a new county to be
cut off from the great Kingdom of Pike. Shaw has now despaired of recovering the seat of government from Atlas
and is resolved to make Coles' Grove the seat of justice of a new county.
Also, from other sections of Pike county and the attached portions thereof, we find, in December 1824, petitions
going up to the legislature for the erection of other new counties out of the far-flung territory of Pike. We find
John Wood, whose cabin stood on the present site of Quincy, going from Atlas to Edwardsville, the early landoffice
for this section, in the latter part of 1824 and inserting in a newspaper printed there, the Edwardsville Spectator,
a notice that application would be made to the next legislature (that of 1824-26) for a new county, setting forth
the proposed boundaries, and accordingly, in January 1825 we find the Legislature laying off and forming the county
of Adams with precisely the same boundaries described in Wood's notice.
On December 6, we find Nicholas Hansen arising in the House under compulsion of his official position and presenting
petitions of "sundry inhabitants of Pike county, praying division of same into a number of counties."
The petitions are read and referred on Hansen's motion to a select committee comprising Hansen, Job and Philips.
On December 16, Hansen moves that the committee to which had been referred the petitions for new counties out of
Pike be discharged.
On January 10, 1825, Shaw has his way and a county is cut off the lower end of Pike pursuant to the Shaw petition
and is called Calhoun, for John C. Calhoun, then one of the greatest southern lawyers and statesmen and Vice President-elect
of the United States, Representative in Congress and United States Senator from South Carolina, Secretary of War
under Monroe, Secretary of State under Tyler, and recognized as the "Father of Nullification."
The new county came near being named LaSalle, for Robert de LaSalle, the French explorer who had effected the first
settlements in Illinois and explored the Mississippi to the gulf, and who, as has been noted, trod the scene of
Indian massacre in the lower end of what is now Calhoun in the fall of 1680.
A writer signing himself as from "Lower Sandusky," now known as the "Point" in Calhoun county,
under date of November 27, 1824 addressed the General Assembly in a communication to the Illinois Intelligencer,
printed at Vandalia, December 3, 1824, as follows:
"Fellow Citizens of the General Assembly:
"It is acknowledged by all that it is right to form a new county out of the southern part of Pike. It is now
upwards of seventy miles for the citizens of the Point to go to the county seat. For this reason and many others,
it is doing justice to the people of that section of the country to give them a new county.
"LaSalle is respectfully submitted to the General Assembly, as a fit name for this new county. This will not
appear unreasonable, when we take into consideration the service of this worthy man.
"Almost 150 years ago, LaSalle left Canada to explore these western regions. He traversed the continent from
the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi. He descended the Illinois and was the first white man to set
foot in Illinois. (Note: Nicholas Perrot, a Frenchman, was probably the first white man to set foot on the soil
of Illinois, at Chicago, in 1671. Louis Jolliet and the gentle chaplain of his expedition, Father Jacques Marquette
of the Jesuits, also appeared upon this wilderness scene before LaSalle.) At a certain lake on the Illinois which
was then called Creve Coeur, he (LaSalle) built a small fort. This I have doubt was the first fortification in
the western county.
"On his return to Canada from the mouth of the Mississippi, this enterprising man was murdered by his own
comrades. Thus fell a meritorious man in the service of his country. His name is almost lost to the people who
are now living in the country he first discovered.
"In conformity with the virtuous feeling of the world the services of LaSalle ought not to be forgotten.It
will be a small but at the same time an honorable tribute of respect to name the above mentioned county for him.
The propriety of calling the above the County of LaSalle is respectfully submitted to a virtuous people."
The writer also pointed out that a virtuous people will always reward merit as was at the moment being strikingly
demonstrated in the tremendous reception and ovation being accorded in this country to the visiting Marquis de
LaFayette, in whose honor the fourth General Assembly was then arranging a great Illinois reception at Kaskaskia,
the ancient capital of Illinois Territory and State.
It should be noted that the name of LaSalle, while not chosen for the new county of 1825, was in 1831 bestowed
upon another county erected high up on the Illinois river, a portion of which county had formerly been Pike county
territory.
The Act creating Calhoun county named George A. Allen and Gershom Flagg as commissioners to select a county seat
for the new county, and these commissioners on January 27, 1825 met and selected Coles' Grove, John Shaw's home,
as the seat of justice, in honor of which Shaw, wealthiest landowner of his day, donated to the new county 80 acres
of land and twelve lots in Coles' Grove upon which to establish the seat of government. In view of the name of
Coles' Grove having been so intimately identified with the seat of justice of Pike county, it was recommended by
the locating commissioners that the name of the justice seat be changed to Gilead, which was done, and to this
day the ancient site of Coles' Grove is known as Gilead.
The first Calhoun election was held February 2, 1825 at the homes of James Gilman and John Bolter, and officers,
most of whose names were already household words in Pike county, were elected as follows: James Nixon, Ebenezer
Smith and Asa Carrico, county commissioners; Bigelow C. Fenton, sheriff (he was also the first sheriff of Pike);
Kames Levin, coroner; A. M. Jenkins, clerk of the circuit court. Jenkins was also the first notary public and was
also appointed the first clerk of the commissioners' court.
The first meeting of the county commissioners was held with Nixon and Smith present, and the first act was to confirm
the selection of Gilead as the county seat and to accept the lands and lots tendered by John Shaw. The commissioners,
adopting the Pike county procedure, proceeded to grant ferry licenses and fix rates, issue tavern licenses and
fix rates for victuals, lodging, etc. Shaw was given permission to operate a ferry across the Mississippi opposite
Clarksville, Mo., and John Bolter was granted a license for a ferry at Little Cap au Gris, near the present site
of the Golden Eagle ferry. A jail, 12 feet square and 8 feet high, to be made of hewn timber, was contracted to
Daniel Church for $40, the county to furnish materials. Levi Roberts was licensed to operate a tavern at Gilead
and to charge the following rates: Meals, 25c; horse keep over night, 25c; lodging, 6c; whiskey, ½ pint,
12c.
Gilead became a place of importance when it was made the county seat. In 1830 a brick court house was begun there,
completed in 1832 by Benjamin Munn, contractor, at a total cost of $1,600. In 1837 a state directory had this to
say of Gilead:
"Gilead has two stores and a dozen families. The court house is of brick, two stories, 30 feet square, and
finished outside."
In January, 1847, the court house at Gilead was destroyed by fire. An election followed to determine the location
of a seat of justice, and Hamburg, which in the meantime had been founded by and become the home of John Shaw,
became the temporary seat of justice. The county commissioners made use of the house in Hamburg owned by Shaw and
formerly used by him for a store.
Again, in 1847, we see John Shaw involved in another county seat controversy. Shaw wanted the permanent county
seat established in Hamburg, his new home. Others wanted the county seat moved to Childs' Landing on the Illinois
river. Still others wanted the seat of justice restored to Gilead.
George W. Carpenter of Hardin, to whose 1934 history of Calhoun the writer is indebted for much data relative to
the lower end of what was once Pike, thus quotes an early writer in reference to the county seat change in 1847:
"When the court house and the jail burned at Gilead there was much rivalry to see what town should be the
capital of the county. Gilead, Hamburg and Childs' Landing were the ones desiring it. Benj. J. Childs offered five
acres of land and fifty thousand bricks if the county seat were moved to his landing. In order to cinch the thing,
he gave a barbecue and free dinner to everybody, and I was one of those everybodies who took advantage of the free
dinner. When the votes were counted, Childs' Landing had more votes than the combined vote of the other two points."
The citizens of Hamburg, led by Shaw, presented a petition to the county commissioners, setting forth that Childs'
Landing had obtained a majority in the election by fraudulent means, but on August 12, 1847, the commissioners
agreed that the county seat should be at Childs' Landing.
Childs' Landing, now Hardin, was first settled by Dr. William Terry who built a house near the present site of
the town hall in Hardin. The place was known as Terry's Landing until the arrival of Benjamin Childs in 1835. Mr.
Childs purchased the land from Terry and from that time until the place was made the county seat it was known as
Childs' Landing.
The five acres of land given by Mr. Childs was the land upon which most of the business houses in Hardin now stands.
The town was laid out in 1847, and the name of Hardin was bestowed in honor of Col. John J. Hardin, noted pleader
who practiced often at the Pike county bar and frequently stopped in Pittsfield on his way to and from Calhoun
county. The gallant Hardin was killed in the Mexican war while leading a charge at the battle of Buena Vista, early
in 1847. Hardin's horse, from which he fell in the charge, was shipped up the river on the steamer "Movastar"
that spring, the boat stopping at what was then Farrowtown, now Kampsville.