Election in 1839--Financial Crash--Condition of the Town--
Anecdote illustrative of the scarcity of money--Hog Story--
Establishment of the Ninawa Gazette--Building of the first
Church.
At an election held on the 19th December 1839 H. P. Woodworth, Simon
Kinney, Z. Burnham, C. H. Charles, and Isaac Abraham were elected
Trustees. Whole number of votes polled 40.
The Board elected Simon Kinney, President; M. Mott, Collector; T. D.
Brewster, Treasurer; and Walter Meriman, Clerk. In the course of the
year Kinney resigned as Trustee and Meriman as Clerk, and Cornelius
Cahill and James Bradford were elected to fill their respective places.
The places of Burnham and Charles became vacant by death, and Ezra
McKinzie and Churchill Coffing were elected to fill them. In 1840 came
the grand financial collapse. The foreign capitalists refused to lend
us any more money. The later residents of Illinois can scarcely
comprehend the condition of things which preceded and ensued. By the
Internal Improvement Act, which puts all Congressional omnibus bills
entirely into the shade, a system of Rail Roads was to be commenced
simultaneously in all parts of the State, running in all manner of
directions, through regions scarcely explored; and counties which were
not fortunate enough to lie in the direction of any place, and thus not
to be traversed by Rail Roads, were bribed into the support of the bill
by distributions of money, all to be borrowed on the faith of the State.
Other acts were passed authorizing loans for prisons, hospitals, asylums
and State Houses. At the same time the Canal was being prosecuted on
State credit. Counties followed the example of the State by borrowing
money to build Court Houses, Jails &c. But at length the bottom fell out
of the whole concern. Unknown Millions had been squandered and not one
public undertaking was completed. Public and private credit were
annihilated. Northern Illinois produced nothing for exportation, and
every kind of business was dependent upon the disbursements on the
public works. The State, Counties, Towns, Banks, corporations and
individuals were alike bankrupt. No gleam of light shone in the future.
Repudiation, public and private, appeared to be the only alternative.
Even the vampires who had been gorged upon the treasury were overwhelmed
in the general avalanche. The few who had hoarded and possessed the
means, left the State; and emigration for years avoided it as though it
had been one great hospital of lepers.
No place experienced the general prostration more sensibly than Peru.
The writer of this with a family to support, did not possess in the year
1841 in the aggregate, a sum of money equal to five dollars. Letters lay
in the Post Office from the inability of those to whom they were
addressed to pay the postage. Nor was this embarrassment confined to
individuals.--Gov. Ford once told the writer, that he had been compelled
to allow letters, directed to him upon official business, to remain in
the Federal Post Office, his own means or credit, or that of the
Sovereign State of Illinois being insufficient to raise the embargo.
Property of no kind had any apparent value whatever. The town gradually
lost its inhabitants, until in 1842, probably not over two hundred
souls remained. These were mainly the less fortunate portion who could
not get away. One Store, a Drug Shop, the Post Office, and two Taverns
were the only places that remained open to the public. Society existed
upon a truly republican basis. No envy was excited in the breasts of the
humble and poor by the brilliant equipages and establishments of the
rich. The creditor who would have seriously asked payment of his debtor
would have been saluted with one universal shout of derision.--As well
might he have asked the sea to give up its dead. His money was gone to
that bourne whence "nary red" would ever return. It was seriously
proposed to enact a law making every man's note a tender for
debts--always excepting the notes of the creditor himself. This
condition of things produced a state of society never witnessed by the
writer, before or since. The prevailing influence was so universal and
complete as to reduce all to a common level. A sympathy and community of
feeling pervaded all Illinois humanity. Thanks to a prolific soil and
sparse population, nobody was in danger of starvation.
The following incident illustrates the scarcity and value of money about
this time. The only merchants who pretended to keep their stores open
for business, and were able to replenish their stock, were the brothers
A. one of them at present an estimable and valued citizen, and the other
a worthy farmer living in the neighborhood. Money was scarce wherewith
to pay freights, and the only resource was to transport wheat, taken of
the farmers for debts, to Chicago, a distance of one hundred miles,
where it was worth about fifty cents per bushel. One of the persons
employed in the transportation was a farmer named M.--One of the
brothers and the writer accompanied the teams. After the wheat had been
marketed and unloaded, M. with a very grave and serious face, desired a
private conference with A. Taking him a little apart from the writer,
and speaking in a voice loud enough to be distinctly overheard, he
informed him that he was under the necessity of asking him for some
money. A. started as if a snake had stung him. He expressed surprise at
such a sudden call, under the circumstances, and reminded M. of the
exertions and sacrifices which he had been compelled to make to raise
money for charges, and that withal he had but barely enough for that
purpose; and concluded by hoping that his demands would be extremely
limited. M. replied that they would be no more extensive than his
necessities absolutely required, and he thought about "two bits would do
him." This announcement greatly relieved A. who immediately responded to
the demand. When it is understood, that the almost universal practice in
traveling, at that time, was to "camp out," the commissary department
drawing its supplies from the domestic larder and corn crib, it will be
perceived that "two bits" would go a good way in eking out the stores
and supplying any deficiency.
Another incident occurred about this time which also illustrates, in
some degree, the spirit of the times. Two citizens who shall be named B.
and M. had been in the habit of bantering each other about their
poverty. M. persisted in assuming that he was not as poor as B., and
that it was all owing to his superior address and financial ability.
This ridiculous assumption may be understood, when it is stated that
neither party could, from every available resource, have raised a sum
in money equal to the present price of a barrel of flour. M. complained
to B. about his hogs running at large, and threatened that if they were
permitted to annoy him he would shut them up and kill them. It so
happened that B. did not own a hog in the world--a fact which he was
careful not to disclose. M. commenced to put his threat in execution by
building an enclosure in which he incarcerated all vagrant hogs, and
proceeded to put them in a condition for slaughtering by a liberal
appliance of corn and swill. These things did not escape the observation
of B. who waited patiently until the hogs were in a nice condition, when
he called upon M. and rather angrily remonstrated with him upon
committing so unneighborly an act as to secrete his hogs, alleging that
he had searched diligently for them, and that great apprehensions had
existed, lest his family might seriously suffer for the want thereof. He
reminded him of the cordiality and good feeling which had previously
existed between them, of their good natured jokes and banters, and of
the general felicity which they had enjoyed in each other's society; and
read him a homily upon the advantages to be derived from the practice
of honesty and integrity. He insisted, however, upon the unconditional
liberation of four particularly promising specimens of the genus,
porker. To this M. demurred.--While he admitted that what B. had taken
so much pains to remind him of, was in the main true, he urged that the
corn wherewith he had fed the hogs was difficult to be obtained, that he
had spent much time in feeding and taking care of them, and that it was
not right for one man to take advantage of another's wrong act for his
own benefit. These arguments somewhat mollified B. who finally agreed to
a compromise by which M. was to continue feeding the hogs for a
specified time, and then kill and dress them, and bring the carcasses of
the two best to the house of B. This compact was carried into effect in
good faith. Shortly afterwards B. disclosed the history of this little
operation which came to the ears of M. It is confidently believed that
he never afterwards boasted of his peculiar gifts of finesse. It is but
fair to say, that the real owner of the hogs who had no share in the
spoils, pocketed his loss with admirable grace.
In the course of the year 1839 the first newspaper published in Peru,
was established by Ford, now Editor and proprietor of the "Lacon
Gazette" in connection with Geo. W. Holley who acted as editor, and was
called the "Ninawa Gazette." Mr. Holley was a gentleman of considerable
literary reputation and made a paper which was eagerly sought for. His
writings were principally distinguished for their peculiar vein of humor
and pleasantry. The paper was continued until 1841, when the press and
materials were removed to Lacon.
The first Church built in the town, was erected by the Methodists in the
fall of 1838.