AND NOW WE RETURN again to the Commissioners' Court at Atlas, where, in September following the August 1824 election,
we find John Shaw again at grips with the Atlas party and dominating the court through his illegally seated commissioners,
appearing and claiming their seats under the fictitious certifications of James W. Whitney, clerk of Pike county.
Pursuant to Whitney's prejudiced certifications, Ebenezer smith and James Nixon, two of the Shaw candidates for
county commissioners, appeared at Atlas for the September (1824) term of court, bearing properly executed certificates
of election from the hand of My Lord Coke. Lord Coke records the opening of this first term succeeding the 1824
election as follows:
"On this day (September 6, 1824) appeared Ebenezer smith and James Nixon, who produced certificates of their
election as County Commissioners and took the several oaths required by law."
At this session, held at Atlas by the usurping Shaw commissioners, the following record indicative of the far-flung
territory that was Pike, was inscribed by Whitney:
"Ordered, that in pursuance of several Petitions of the inhabitants residing on or near Fever River and the
lead mines adjacent thereto, that John Connelly, Moses Meeker and John Miller be and they are hereby recommended
to the Governor of this State as fit and proper persons to be appointed and commissioned Justices of the Peace."
The first permanent settlement by the whites in all northwestern Illinois, of which any record or reliable knowledge
now remains, existed about 1820 at this early Pike county point, on the banks of the river now known as the Galen.
This river was then known as Fever or Bean River. The Indians name for the river was Mah-cau-bee, "the fever
that blisters," and was named from the fact of the Indians having smallpox there. Hundreds of the natives
died and they gave the name of Big Smallpox and Little Smallpox to the streams upon which they lived. The whites
changed the name of the former to Fever River. Galena was known as "Fever River Settlement" and we find
frequent mention of it in old Pike county records. John S. Miller, named in the Pike county record above, was perhaps
the first settler at what is now Galena, and Moses Meeker, also mentioned was perhaps the next.
Fever River, so-called from the French name, Riviere au Feve, given it by the early traders and adventurers in
this later Pike county territory, was in 1824 one of the most populous sections of Pike county. This section of
country is referred to in the "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," a work published in 1822 and now
very rare, as follows:
"Bean River (‘Riviere au Feve,' Fr.), a navigable stream of Pike county, emptying into the Mississippi three
miles below Cat-Fish Creek, and 20 miles below Dubuque's mines, and about 70 above Rock River. Nine miles up this
stream a small creek empties into it from the west. The banks of the creek, and the hills which bound its alluvium,
are filled with lead ore of the best quality. Three miles below this on the banks of Bean River is the Traders'
Village, consisting of ten or twelve houses or cabins. At this place the ore procured from the Indians is smelted
and then sent in boats either to Canada or New Orleans. The lands on this stream are poor, and are only valuable
on account of the immense quantities of minerals which they contain."
In the same work Chicago is simply mentioned as "a village of Pike county, containing 12 or 15 houses and
about 60 or 70 inhabitants." Fort Dearborn had been built there in 1804, but so far was it in the wilderness
that when the massacre of the garrison in 1812 occurred, many days elapsed before it was known to the nearest white
settlement.
At the September 1824 session of the commissioners' court, wherein was taken the action with reference to the Fever
River petitions, the usurping Shaw commissioners fired another broadside at the Atlas party. The commissioners,
attempting to invalidate actions of the Atlas commissioners who had been in control of the court from the 1822
election until they were ousted by the decision of Justice John Reynolds and succeeded by the Shaw commissioners
in January, 1824, passed the following order:
"Ordered that all orders appropriating the county revenues, entered or made prior to the 25th of January last,
and now remaining unpaid, except the salaries of the county officers, be and the same are hereby rescinded."
The commissioners next issued a tavern license to George Davenport to "keep a tavern in the house in which
he now resides near Fort Armstrong" (this being a renewal of a former license), and a ferry license to Jonathan
Simonds to keep a ferry across the Illinois river. Following an order directing the clerk of the court to deliver
to the sheriff a list of persons for grand and petit jurors at the next term of the circuit court, which was to
sit at Atlas in May, 1825.
Elections, bitter as they were, were not as expensive in 1824 as they are today. The honorable commissioners, prior
to the August 1824 election, had authorized the expenditure of $18 for ballot boxes. Now, after the election, we
find them making the following order:
"Ordered that the County Treasurer pay unto the several judges and clerks of the late election and the constables
for attending the same and to messengers for bringing the poll books to the County-seat, and to the assistant Justices,
the sum of $28.20, and the Clerk to furnish the Treasurer with a list containing the sums due each."
Then the Shaw commissioners, sitting by virtue of Clerk Whitney's fictitious election returns, began a long warfare
in the courts against the Atlas party with the entering of the following order:
"Ordered that James Turney, Esquire, Attorney at Law, be authorized to conduct and manage the suit heretofore
commenced by him in behalf of the County of Pike against David Dutton and James M. Seeley (Atlas commissioners
ousted by Reynolds in October, 1823), which said suit was commenced at the request of this Court; and that he be
and he is hereby allowed for his services in and about that suit the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars in State
Paper; And it is further ordered that the County Treasurer pay the said James Turney that sum out of the County
Treasury."
Following this order employing the then Attorney General of the state to prosecute the former Atlas commissioners,
the usurping Shaw commissioners adjourned "until Court in course."
And now we come to the period in Pike county's history when the early courts begin to reap the bitter aftermath
of the county-seat contests. Now the mills of justice begins to grind the grist of those exciting campaigns. Slander,
libel, vituperation, defamation, assault and affray had run rampant in the heat of the acrimonious contest of the
rival factions for control of the county government, a contest that was aggravated in 1824 by the slavery issue.
Now the assaulted and the defamed seek redress in the courts, the dockets of which reveal the greatest names of
our early history.
On the docket of the May 1825 term of the circuit court at Atlas (the first Pike county court presided over by
a circuit judge, and the first term of court following the August 1824 election) is recorded the beginning of the
long warfare of the Shaw and Ross parties in the pioneer courts. At this term of the circuit court, the records
of the proceedings, heretofore in the strange but delightful hand of James W. Whitney, appear for the first time
in a new hand, that of George W. Hight, the new clerk of the court who has succeeded the ousted Whitney, indicted
for malpractice in office. The opening of this first Pike county court presided over by a circuit judge is thus
recorded:
"At a Circuit Court begun and holden in and for the County of Pike, State of Illinois, at the town of Atlas,
on the first Thursday after the fourth Monday in the month of May, A. D. 1825, present the Honorable John York
Sawyer, Judge, James Turney, Attorney General, Leonard Ross, Sheriff, and George W. Hight, Clerk.
"The following persons sworn as a grand jury, to-wit: Levi Wells, foreman; Thomas Bristow, Jethro Petty, John
Wood, Joseph Burney, Lewis Allen, John Soul, Zepheniah Ames, Thomas McCraney, Charles Brewster, Samuel Chidister,
John Smith, Jas. B. Petty, Amos Beebe, John Droullard, John Gillmore, William B. Burnett, Henry Jacobs, Ebenezer
Franklin, and Henry J. Ross, who being charged by the Court and the Attorney General retired to consider of presentments.
Earl Pierce, a constable, sworn to take charge of the grand jury."
It was this grand jury that was called upon to consider the evidence connected with the criminal charges made by
the people and growing out of numerous encounters arising during the 18 months' campaign preceding the August 1824
election.
The roster of the grand jury contains some noted names. John Wood, then a dweller on the present site of Quincy,
in 1860 became governor of Illinois upon the death of Bissell. Lewis Allen was a nephew of the celebrated Daniel
Boone; his mother, a sister of the great Kentuckian, lived in a very early day near the present site of Milton.
John Droullard was a Frenchman with a large family who at this time dwelt on the site of modern Quincy, Ebenezer
Franklin was the first permanent white settler within the present limits of Pike county, having tarried for a while
in the neighborhood of the present Milton in 1819, later pitching his tent up Jockey Hollow, near Atlas. Henry
J. Ross, one of the Atlas founders, was the county's earliest physician, practicing his profession for the first
15 years of the county's history and extending his rides on horseback to other counties. He died in 1836, childless.
Now let us scan the dockets of the early circuit court, wherein is the authentic record of the clashing partisans
of the Ross and Shaw parties, and from which we may glean some interesting facts as to the practices of the pioneer
courts.
James W. Whitney, clerk of the commissioners' and the circuit courts and a justice of the peace, is indicted for
malpractice in office. Three separate indictments stand against him. He is indicted for malpractice as clerk of
the county commissioners' court, as clerk of the circuit court, and as justice of the peace. Whitney never comes
to trial, the suits against him being eventually dismissed upon his agreeing to resign as clerk.
Leonard Ross sues John Shaw for libel and this becomes one of the most noted law suits of early days. At the term
of the circuit court next succeeding the August 1824 election, Shaw, representing that he can not get a fair trial
in Pike county, moves by his attorney, James Turney, for a change of venue which motion, on full argument and deliberation
had, is overruled by Judge John York Sawyer, sitting as the first circuit judge in Pike county, at Atlas, in May
1825. The cause is set by Judge sawyer for immediate trial, and the regular panel of jurors is discharged at the
request of the parties, the plaintiff Ross being sheriff of the county, and "it appearing to the Court that
there is no coroner in this county, it is therefore ordered by the Court that Dexter Wheelock be appointed an Elisor,
and summon a panel of twenty-four men to appear as jurors."
Ross and Shaw finally reach an agreement as to a change of venue; the case is transferred to Morgan county for
trial, Judge Sawyer directing that the papers in the case be placed in the hands of the clerk of the Morgan county
court and that suit be had at the next term of that court in the same manner as if the suit had been originally
filed in that court. The papers, however, are not transferred and the issues are not joined in the Morgan court
and at the October 1825 term of the circuit court at Atlas, Ross, by his attorney, H. Starr, moves to re-enter
the cause on the docket of that court since it had never been entered on the Morgan docket, which motion is overruled
and the papers in the case ordered to be handed to Attorney A. W. Caverly with instructions that he hand them to
the clerk of the Morgan county court. The case, pursuant to that action, is then filed in the Morgan court on a
change of venue, where it disappears (as do a number of other suits filed at this time in the Pike court and taken
on change of venue to other counties) in the lost records of the early courts.
John Shaw sues Leonard Ross in a justice court and losing in that court appeals to the circuit court, and in May
1825 Ross, by his attorney, John Reynolds (the future governor), moves the court to dismiss the appeal and later
the appeal is dismissed and the costs assessed against Shaw.
James W. Whitney sues John Shaw for slander and also brings another suit against Shaw for libel. These cases are
argued through the courts until the May term 1826, when they are finally dismissed upon Shaw paying the costs of
the prosecution.
Shaw is indicted by the grand jury for criminal libel and this becomes another great issue in the courts, appearing
term after term on the records of the court. The Rosses (Leonard, William and Henry J.), Nicholas Hansen and James
W. Whitney are the prosecuting witnesses against Shaw. Shaw is also indicted for assault and later for perjury,
and witnesses are placed under bond to testify in alien courts to which most of the Shaw cases are eventually taken
on changes of venue. The sheriff of Calhoun county, William Frye, a partisan of Shaw, incurs the displeasure of
Judge Sawyer in the Pike county court when he fails to return a capias issued by the court for the body of John
Shaw, and the court, upon motion of the attorney general, prosecuting Shaw, directs an attachment to issue to bring
the body of William Frye, sheriff of Calhoun county, into the Pike court to answer for a contempt.
At the May term, 1826, in the case of the People vs. John Shaw, indicted for libel, it is ordered by the Court
that a capias issue against the defendant Shaw, directed to the sheriff of Calhoun county (cut off from Pike in
January, 1825), returnable at the next term of court. The court directs the same order in the case of the People
vs. Shaw, indicted for assault, and in the case of the People vs. John Bolter (one of the Shaw judges in the 1824
election), also indicted for assault.
At the succeeding October term of court in Atlas, these cases are called and the defendants, Shaw and Bolter, do
not appear. The record in each case is then as follows:
"This day came the Attorney General for the People and moved that a writ of attachment issue to bring the
body of William Frye, sheriff of Calhoun county, into Court to answer for a contempt in failing to make his return
of a capias issued agreeable to an order of this court at the last term, against the body of the defendant; after
hearing the argument of counsel, ordered that a writ of attachment be granted."
On October 24, 1826, Shaw appeared in the Pike court at Atlas by his attorney and filed his answer to the indictments
against him and moved the court to rule the Attorney General, as the attorney for the people, to join in said answer
and the court took time to consider until the following term.
On November 5, 1827, Shaw appeared by his attorney, A. W. Caverly of Greene county, with a petition for a change
of venue in the case against him, which was denied by the court on the ground that the defendant did not appear
in court. The same action was taken in the case against John Bolter, who also petitioned by his attorney, Caverly,
for a change of venue.
The grand jury at this term of court returned a further indictment against Shaw, charging perjury. In the two other
cases, charging Shaw with libel and assault, the defendant does not appear, nor do his bondsmen, and the record
in these appears as follows:
"This day (November 5, 1827) came the Attorney General, and the defendant in this cause having been arrested,
and entered into recognizance to appear in Court on this day, and answer to the indictment aforesaid (that of criminal
libel), and being solemnly called to appear according to the condition of his recognizance, came not, but made
default, and James Levin and Jacob Fenner, the securities of the said John Shaw, being solemnly called to appear
and bring into Court the body of said Shaw, according to their undertaking, and they failing to appear and comply
with the condition of their recognizance; It is considered by the Court that the said recognizance be forfeited
and on motion of the Attorney General ordered that scire facias issue."
An identical record appears in the case of the People vs. John Shaw, indicted for assault, and the same in the
assault case against John Bolter, wherein Asa Carrico and Jacob Fenner are the securities whose recognizances are
declared forfeited.
At the June 1828 term of court the assault charge against John Bolter finally comes to trial at Atlas before a
jury and Bolter is found guilty in manner and form as charged in the indictment and he is ordered to make a fine
to the state in the sum of $6 and pay the costs of the prosecution.
Shaw at this term of court petitions for a change of venue to Greene county in the cases against him charging libel
and assault. He stands trial at Atlas on the perjury charge, and, with only two jurors accepted from the regular
panel, an Elisor is appointed by the court and other jurors summoned until finally a jury of Pike citizens acceptable
to Shaw is sworn and hears the evidence and arguments and on June 2, 1828 returns a verdict of "Not Guilty"
and Shaw is discharged by the court from the perjury indictment.
In the transfer of the libel and assault cases to the Greene county court at Carrollton, John Shaw, the defendant,
and his sureties, Joseph Mather and Benjamin Southard, enter into recognizance in the sum of $200 each for Shaw's
appearance in the Carrollton court on the third Monday in September, 1828.
James W. Whitney, Nicholas Hansen and Leonard Ross enter into recognizance in the sum of $50 each for their appearance
at the court house in the town of Carrollton at the September term as prosecuting witnesses against Shaw on the
assault charge. Henry J. Ross, William Ross, Nicholas Hansen, James Whitney and Leonard Ross appear in open court
and enter into recognizance in the sum of $50 each for their appearance at the same term of court in Carrollton
to testify against Shaw on the criminal libel charge.
On April 7, 1830, in the circuit court at Atlas, Shaw is again arraigned by his Atlas opponents on charges of libel
growing out of the 1824 campaign and again Shaw finds himself a defendant in a case brought by the People charging
criminal libel. Again Shaw, alleging he cannot receive justice in Pike county, appeals for a change of venue to
the Greene county circuit court, his motion for a change being allowed. Shaw and his surety, John B. Tebo, bind
themselves in the sum of $200 each for Shaw's appearance in the Greene county court at the August term 1830. Leonard
Ross, William Ross and James W. Whitney each is recognized in the sum of $50 for his appearance at the same time
and place to give testimony for the prosecution.
Jean Baptiste Tibault (the John B. Tebo of the above record), appearing as Shaw's surety in this case, was probably
the first sojourner in what is now Pike county. He was living in a cabin on the banks of the Illinois river, in
section 33, Flint township, when Illinois became a state (1818). He figured frequently in the early courts, Lord
Coke Whitney always recording his name as "Jean B. Tebo." Tibault was a Canadian Frenchman. He lived
as a hunter, tilled no land and made no permanent abode, nor had a family, and probably is hardly entitled to the
honor of "first settler," in spite of his early presence in what is now Pike. He was killed at Milton
in 1844.
Thus, we find the warfare growing out of the county seat contests continuing in the Pike county courts for a period
of six years following the tumultuous days of 1824, the cases arising between the Shaw and Ross parties eventually
disappearing on venue changes to other counties, where their outcomes are shrouded in obscurity. Not until the
April term of circuit court in Atlas in 1830 (three years before the removal of the court to the new county seat
at Pittsfield) does the last of the famous Shaw cases disappear from the Pike county dockets.
Meanwhile, out of the seething cauldron of 1824 politics, numerous other issues have arisen, both civil and criminal,
that crowd the early courtroom at "term time" with eager partisans of Shaw and Ross. A future governor
of Illinois clashes with John Shaw in the log courtroom at Atlas and there ensues a colorful period in the history
of this section that an ensuing chapter will reveal for the first time to the people of modern Pike county.