ATLAS, ERECTED as the new and permanent Pike seat of justice in March, 1823, is now, in October of the same year,
challenged as to its future authority by the decision of Justice John Reynolds ousting the sitting (Atlas party)
commissioners and turning over the county government to the bitter anti-Atlas or Shaw party. At once, the county
government is thrown into confusion, and the Atlas, or Ross party, and the Coles' Grove, or Shaw party, gird for
another contest.
These two parties dominate the politics of the early county. The Rosses are the great Whigs of the early days,
but Democracy and Whiggery play little part in the earlier political contests in the county. The settlers are divided,
Shaw and anti-Shaw, Ross and anti-Ross. The county-seat is the bone of contention, and, as the settlers divide
on the county-seat issue, so also do they divide on national issues. Thus we find the Shaw party espousing the
cause of slavery in the state, while the Ross party is strongly anti-slave.
The Rosses are now growing in power and rising rapidly to a great destiny. For years their voices are to be heard
in the legislative halls of county and state, and one of them, in the dark period of fratricidal strife, is to
have the ear of the great war president, Abraham Lincoln. Soldiers and statesmen, they have much to do with shaping
political development in the state.
Against the rising power of the Rosses, John Shaw now wages war that knows no quarter. For years the dockets of
the Pike county courts are to reflect the violence and lawlessness of this relentless contest — criminal suits
at law alleging slander, libel, assaults, batteries, affrays, riots and, in one instance, a criminal action arising
from dueling. The records reveal the names of the greatest leaders of those days as plaintiffs and defendants in
the long list of criminal actions growing out of these turbulent times. Nor does the period supply fuel for the
courts in Pike county alone, but so bitter become the envenomed hatreds that men are sometimes unable to receive
fair trial in the Pike county courts and the cases go on changes of venue to the courts of Greene and Morgan and
Madison counties, as we shall see in a coming chapter.
With the ending of the October (1823) term of court at Atlas, there ended a colorful period in the history of the
Pike county bench. At this term a justice of the state supreme bench sat for the last time in the Pike courts.
Under the Constitution of 1818, the terms of office of the supreme judges were to expire with the close of the
year 1824. There is no record of any circuit court being held in Pike county in the turbulent year 1824. Meantime
the legislature reorganized the judiciary by creating both circuit and supreme courts. The state was divided into
five judicial circuits, providing two terms of court annually in each county. The salaries of the circuit judges
were fixed at $600. The next term of circuit court held in Pike county, of which there is any record, succeeding
the October term (1823) at Atlas, was in May, 1825, with Judge John York Sawyer, the first circuit judge to hold
court in this county, upon the bench. He had been chosen for the First Circuit.
From the pioneer courtroom in Atlas in October, 1823, Justice John Reynolds stepped forth upon a path that was
to lead him to the state legislature, to the Congress of the United States, and, eventually, in 1830, to the governorship
of the state of Illinois. John Reynolds it was who, at the first term of circuit court in Pike county, convened
at Coles' Grove on October 1, 1821, sentenced the Indian Pemesan (otherwise known as Traveler) to make a fine to
the state in the sum of 25 cents and be imprisoned for twenty-four hours in a rail pen that then served as the
Pike county jail. The Indian had been found guilty by a traverse jury on an indictment alleging murder, this being
the first indictment returned by the first grand jury impaneled in the new county. From that day up to and including
the October (1823) term at Atlas, the circuit court bench in Pike was occupied by either John Reynolds, a justice
of the state supreme court, or his illustrious uncle, Thomas Reynolds, then chief justice of the Illinois supreme
bench and later governor of Missouri.
Justice John Reynolds, who had come to Illinois county in the year 1800, at the age of twelve, had reached the
age of 35 when he handed down his famous ouster renewing the county seat war. Justice Reynolds doubtless realized
the implications of his ouster decision and sensed the bitter conflict, aggravated by the then growing slavery
issue, that was to ensue. That he then knew the county-seat issue would be linked with that of slavery is manifest
from his reported utterances at the time. In the letter of H. Starr heretofore referred to, portions of which are
undecipherable from mutilation, Justice Reynolds is credited with these words:
"Here, at Atlas, the Missouri (slavery) question is stronger than blood and kin. Settler is arrayed against
settler. Feeling is so bitter that there is sometimes resort to personal violence. Two factions, growing out of
the county-seat troubles, are taking sides, one for and one against. The result no man can foretell."
The commissioners of the Atlas party had convened the commissioners' court at Atlas for the last time on September
2, 1823, a month and a half prior to the filing of the Atlas party's appeal from the ouster, the commissioners
of the Shaw party meet in special session for the first time in the log courtroom in Atlas. Present on this day
are Ebenezer Smith and William Metz, but on account of the absence of Clerk Whitney, court is adjourned to the
succeeding day. Smith, Metz and James Nixon, all partisans of the Shaw party, are the men certified by Justice
Reynolds as the legal commissioners following the ousting of the Atlas party members.
At this term of the commissioners' court at Atlas, another step is taken in the organic development of the county,
which is also a move to clip the wings of the Atlas party. The county is divided into three townships. The southernmost
township is called Colesgrove and includes all of what is now Calhoun county and north to a line between the two
rivers one mile north of the present southern boundary of Pike county. North of this line to the base line and
west of the range line separating the present townships in ranges 4 and 5 west, is a second township called Atlas.
In the northwest corner of Atlas township is the site of the present city of Quincy, which at this time is peopled
by a single family, that of Major Rose, a settler who in March 1823, moved into John Wood's cabin, Wood being a
bachelor boarder therein. Wood's cabin is at this time the only one in the locality of what is now Quincy. Major
Rose has a daughter, five years old at this time, who later becomes the wife of Mr. Brown of the pioneer firm of
Brown & Dimock, Quincy merchants. These people, at the time here spoken of, are obliged to go to Atlas, 40
miles, to Ross's mill for meal. It should be noted that at this time Atlas and Quincy (the latter was not laid
out and so named until the following year, 1825) were both in the same township. The two towns were early rivals.
Col. William Ross, founder of Atlas, declared that Quincy would never amount to much on account of being too near
Atlas.
A third township erected by the commissioners on January 28, 1824, was named Franklin. This included all the territory
north of Colesgrove township to the base line and east of Atlas township to the Illinois river, together with all
the attached part of Pike lying north of the base line. The present site of Pittsfield and the present sites of
Rock Island and Galena were thus in Franklin township, the largest of the three townships, embracing 11 present
counties and parts of counties.
Thus, on January 28, 1824, the commissioners, in view of an approaching crucial election, acted to increase the
political prestige of the Shaw party and hamper that of the Ross party. Settlements, excepting those around the
lead mines at Galena, were still confined mostly to the southern regions of the county. The old Coles' Grove precinct,
in the new township setup, was greatly enlarged, its northern limit being extended into former Ross's Settlement
(now Atlas) territory. More settlers were thereby brought under the dominion of the Black Prince's precinct. Atlas
township was given a large domain but most of it lay in the yet unpeopled wilds to the north. Franklin township
was so constituted as to rob Atlas of the eastern settlers who had formerly voted at Ross's Settlement. In this
move the Shaw party struck a telling blow against the seat of the Rosses.
But this was not all. At this same January term, the Shaw commissioners took further action that constituted a
direct threat against the Ross stronghold. And here occurs a notable hiatus in the county records. The action,
formal or otherwise, here taken with respect to the county-seat, has not been recorded by Clerk Whitney. The action
of the commissioners may have been informal and therefore not submitted to record. However, future actions of the
court, by way of rescinding an action here unrecorded, suggest that formal action was taken. Certain it is, in
the light of future actions of the court and in the light of the immediate actions of the partisans of Atlas, a
movement was here initiated that had to do with the removal of the county-seat from Atlas back to Coles' Grove.
It is evident that this session the commissioners, all of whom were of the Shaw party, took action repudiating
the work of the legislative commission that had fixed the permanent seat of justice at Atlas.
And now begins the most turbulent period in Pike county history. As Justice Reynolds suggested, settler becomes
arrayed against settler and there is frequent resort to personal violence.
Charges, bitter and barbed with hate, fly back and forth. Shafts of malice, tipped in venom such as only slavery
could exude, are loosed and quiver in the bosoms of those who once were friends. Slander, libel, defamation of
every sort become the order of the day. Grounds are laid for slander suits that for a half-dozen years are to blot
the dockets of the courts. Trumped-up charges of malpractice and misfeasance are leveled against county officials
by the warring factions. Great leaders of the time, espousing or condemning slavery, address the pioneer gatherings
and add fuel to the flames.
With the adjournment of the January term of the commissioners' court, the partisans of Atlas spring into action.
Plans are laid to thwart the purpose of the Black Prince. It is apprehended that at the coming regular term of
the commissioners' court in March, the county-seat will be lost or won.
The Atlas party is at a disadvantage. The state legislature does not meet again until November, 1824. The circuit
court is not in session again until May, 1825. Hope lies in these two bodies, but through them no immediate defense
can be had. For months, the unfriendly commissioners' court will have the upper hand.
Nicholas Hansen, the great adversary of Shaw, is summoned. Hansen, ousted by the third legislature, which seated
Shaw in his place, is induced to run again for the fourth legislature. Atlas intends to have a friend at court
in case further action by the legislature is needed. For the purpose of immediate defense at the March term of
court, Hansen and Leonard Ross are put at the head of the Atlas forces.
John M. Smith, Daniel Moore, Daniel Shin and Garret VanDusen, four of the commissioners named by the third legislature
to fix the permanent county-seat, meet again in the log courtroom in Atlas. There they prepare an additional and
supplementary report, confirming their former findings with reference to the county-seat and setting forth additional
reasons for their determination in favor of Atlas. This supplementary report of the county-seat commissioners is
entrusted to Nicholas Hansen and Leonard Ross, to be used by them to fortify their arguments before the unfriendly
court at the March term.
On March 1, 1824, Ebenezer Smith and James Nixon convened the commissioners' court in regular term at Atlas. William
Metz, the other commissioner, was not present the first day of the session. The courtroom was crowded with the
clans of the contenders.
The first act of the commissioners was a body blow at the Atlas party. The commissioners seized the county treasury
from the Atlas party by ousting Nathaniel Hinckley, then treasurer and an Atlas partisan, and appointing Nathaniel
Shaw of the Shaw party. The office of county treasurer was then appointive.
The order for seizure of the treasury reads as follows: "Ordered that Nathaniel Shaw be and he is hereby appointed
County Treasurer, for the year ensuing, to enter into bond with security, and in all other respects comply with
the law in such cases."
Later on in the same term is another order as follows: "Ordered that the former County Treasurer, Nathaniel
Hinckley, deliver over to the present Treasurer all the books and papers relating to that office."
On this opening day of the term, the Atlas party, by its appointed spokesmen, appears in Court and challenges the
decision of the Court to return the county seat to Coles' Grove, introducing in support thereof the supplementary
report of the county-seat commissioners. The official record is in these words:
"Nicholas Hansen and Leonard Ross presented a report of certain persons appointed by an act of the Legislature
as Commissioners to locate the permanent seat of justice for Pike county, and moved to have said report filed and
recorder, which said motion for the reasons following is overruled: 1st, The authority given by the act aforesaid
was a special joint authority and should have been strictly pursued; 2nd, It happens that but three out of five
Commissioners acted in the location of the county-seat, when the law gave no power to a majority to act; 3rd, That
said Commissioners did not return and present their report at or before the time prescribed by law for the return
of said report; 4th, That the legal and qualified County Commissioners were in session at the time prescribed by
law for the return of said report. And for the reasons aforesaid this Court does adjudge and decide that the proceedings
of said Commissioners to locate the permanent county-seat of Pike county are void, and that the temporary seat
of justice of said county still remains at Colesgrove.
"Ordered that the Clerk of this Court transmit a copy of the foregoing decision to the Judge presiding in
this Circuit."
On the following day, March 2, with all three commissioners present, court was reconvened and the first action
is recorded as follows:
"The proceedings of yesterday having been read over, they were concurred in by William Metz, the other commissioner."
Thus the commissioners handed down a unanimous decision against Atlas and in favor of Coles' Grove.
Further steps are then taken for the actual removal of the log court house back to Coles' Grove and at this point,
when the matter of a clerk's office to be located at Coles' Grove is under consideration, the genius of John Shaw
is again manifest in the following official entry by the clerk:
"John Shaw, having proposed to lease the county the building in Colesgrove, adjoining the one now occupied
by Rigdon C. Fenton, for the term of one year, to be occupied as a Clerk's office, for the sum of 6 1/4 cents,
and to be repaired by the county, under the direction of said Shaw, and to suit his convenience:
"Ordered that the proposals aforesaid be and are hereby acceded to on the part of this Court."
Whereupon it was ordered that "Court adjourn till court in course."