Thompson

Chapter 19

The Rosses Take Their Place in Government; William Leads His Men In Black Hawk War


THE FIRST ELECTION held at what is now Atlas, which was the first in present Pike county, was August 2, 1822. A total of 53 votes was cast. Atlas was then known as Ross's Settlement. Voting was viva voce and took place in Rufus Brown's tavern, designation as the polling place by the county commissioners. The voting precinct included all of present Pike county south of a line between the two rivers coinciding with the north line of Pittsfield township; also a strip two townships (12 miles) deep off the northern end of what is now Calhoun. The polling place at Ross's Settlement was set up pursuant to an order of the commissioners dated June 5, 1822. Prior to this time, Pike county voters from the Wisconsin line and the shores of Lake Michigan south to the tip of present Calhoun had to go to Coles' Grove to exercise their right of franchise.

The Rosses, Whig in politics, dominated the political history of Pike county for many years. William Ross, in 1822 a Pike county justice of the peace, on February 14, 1823, was elected judge of the court of probate for Pike county, a capacity in which he served again in the period 1827-34. In 1827 he was appointed clerk of the circuit court, serving until 1835. In 1826 he was appointed clerk of the county commissioners' court, resigning that office upon his election to the legislature in 1834. During a period of seven years, 1827-34, he was the county's foremost office holder, holding coincidently the offices of county judge, circuit clerk and county clerk, a record approached but not equaled by James W. Whitney in the earlier 1820s.

While William Ross was occupying the offices of judge of probate and clerk of the county and circuit courts, his brother Leonard was sheriff of the county, and his other brother, Dr. Henry J., was serving the county as its first senator in the state legislature at Vandalia. Thus it appears that the three remaining Rosses of the early settlement (Clarendon, the fourth, having died in 1821) were signally honored with political emoluments by the early people of the county.

Henry J. Ross went to the state legislature as the first senator from Pike in 1828, serving in the sixth General Assembly of 1828-30. Re-elected, he served again as state senator in the Assembly of 1830-32. He had first gone to the legislature as the representative from Pike in the lower house in the Assembly of 1826-28. In the election for the eighth Assembly, held on August 6, 1832, Henry J. Ross was defeated by Archibald Williams, the Whig candidate for the senate from Adams county, then in the Pike legislative district, although in Pike county Ross defeated Williams by a vote of 292 to 110.

A Pike county Ross sat in every General Assembly, either as senator or representative, from 1826 to 1842, except in the eighth Assembly (1832-34). In the election of August 4, 1834, William Ross, running for the first time for the legislature, swept the district against three other candidates, William G. Flood, James H. Ralston and Thomas H. Owens. Hancock, Pike and Adams constituted the district which started William Ross upon his legislative career.

In 1836 William Ross became the candidate of the Whigs for state senator, becoming the second state senator elected from Pike county. In the election, held August 1, 1836, Ross defeated Merrill E. Rattan, Pittsfield's first postmaster and early judge of probate, by a majority of 116 votes in a total of 866 cast in the county. Ross was twice re-elected to the state senate, serving as senator from Pike in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth General Assemblies. In the tenth and eleventh he had as a colleague the noted Orville H. Browning of Adams county. In the tenth, he served with two other noted men of the early day, Alpheus Wheeler and Parvin Paullin, then representing Pike county in the lower house. In the thirteenth Assembly, Ross was succeeded by Thomas Worthington in the state senate.

William Ross, in addition to his county offices, was also the early postmaster at Atlas, for some time the only post town in what is now Pike. At a later period and up to 1833, when a post office was established in the new county seat town of Pittsfield, there was a post office at Clio, at Charles Stratton's house, and one at Bay, south of modern Pleasant Hill.

Colonel Ross was a member of the state legislature in 1834-35 when the Illinois and Michigan canal, one of the most important enterprises in the early development of Illinois and which had been recommended by Governor Shadrack Bond, the first governor, in his first message, was pushed forward toward completion. He also sat as a member from Pike in 1836-37 when the ruinous internal improvement system of the state was launched, which plunged the young and struggling state into a maelstrom of debt and brought it to the brink of repudiation. But Colonel Ross raised his voice against that reckless program, and later, in 1840, the legislature repealed the improvement laws, but not until the state had accumulated a debt of nearly fifteen million dollars. Following an era of chaos.

State banks failed, specie was scarce, an enormous debt hung over the people, the interest of which could not be met. People were disappointed in the accumulation of wealth, and real estate became worthless. Repudiation was boldly advocated by some leading men of the day. Not so by Colonel Ross. True to those instincts of honor that ever characterized his public as well as his private life, he raised his voice against such dishonor, and, joining with other honest and able men of the day, preserved the fair name of Illinois from the tarnish of repudiation.

The Road Law of 1835, so-called, which was of great value to Pike county, was the work of Colonel Ross. Under that law was begun the work of improving the highway from Quincy through the northern part of the county, from Pittsfield to Florence, and from Griggsville to the Illinois river. These projects were later completed by county and township aid.

The early settlers of Pike were seldom molested by the Indians but nevertheless there existed a very real fear of them. Especially was this true near the end of the first decade when stories of the depredations of the Black Hawk tribes in the northern part of the state began to trickle into the settlements. An incident illustrative of the fear that permeated the region was related by Samuel Clark of Kinderhook township.

A Man passing a settler's house heard issuing from within the agonized screams of a child. Supposing the Indians were inside committing some bloody butchery, he raised the alarm through the settlements, and soon the news had spread like wildfire that a settler's family had been murdered and the Indians were tomahawking all who came that way. Great was the consternation. Settlers fled in all directions, some fleeing up the old Fort Edwards trail to seek protection at the early fort. The wild exodus was finally halted when a settler of less excitable nature investigated and found that no Indians were near and that the blood-curdling yells of the child were responsive to a "tanning" being administered by the child's father.

The whites at early Atlas gained the friendship of the tribes encamped on the Sny by one of those little ministrations that seemed often to appeal to some bit of true nobility in the Indian character. It is related that a Sauk squaw who fell ill of a fever was taken into the log home of a white family at Atlas and nursed back to health by them, much to the surprise of the tribesmen, who were very grateful, showing their gratitude in many ways.

Another Indian anecdote of early Atlas related by the 1880 historian had to do with a prank played by John Jay Ross and Adolfus Filer on the family of Abner Young, occupying a cabin near Atlas. The two young cutups imitated the war whoops of the savages so ingeniously that Mr. and Mrs. Young were sure they were surrounded by bloodthirsty redskins. Frightened almost out of their wits, they chucked their children into a small cellar that was not large enough for themselves also; then they betook themselves to a thick mustard patch where they remained in hiding until the afternoon of the following day before mustering up courage to return to the house to liberate their famished children.

In November, 1830, some fifty or sixty of Black Hawk's warriors of the Sauk and Fox came down from their Rock River encampment in the northern part of the state and camped on Bay Creek. Hogs disappeared in the neighborhood of the camp and trouble ensued between the Indians and the whites. The whites turned out, caught some of the red warriors, tied them up and administered, none too gently, a flagellation with withes, whereupon the redskins left the country, never to return again in any considerable numbers.

In June, 1831, trouble having occurred between the Black Hawk tribes and the white settlers in the north, a council was held at Rock Island between Black Hawk and twenty-seven chiefs and warriors on one part, and Gen. Edmund P. Gaines of the U. S. Army and Gov. John Reynolds of Illinois on the other part, whereat was signed a treaty of peace and friendship, the Indians agreeing to withdraw and remain west of the Mississippi.

In April, 1832, in direct violation of this treaty, Black Hawk with some five hundred followers appeared again upon the scene, and fear and excitement spread through the state. To drive them out, Gov. Reynolds, the former Justice who presided in the early courts at Coles' Grove and Atlas, called on the militia April 16, 1832. William Ross, then captain of the Pike County Militia, received word at Atlas from the Governor on April 20, and immediately issued the following orders:

"COMPANY ORDERS: The volunteer company of Pike county will meet at Atlas on Monday, the 23rd inst., ready to take up their march by sunrise, except such part of the company as are living on the east side of said county, which part will meet the company at the house of George Hinman, about four miles this side of Phillip's Ferry, on the same day, all with a good horse, and rifle, powder horn, half pound of powder, and one hundred balls, with three days' provisions. The commanding officer of said company flatters himself that every man will be prompt to his duty.

"W. ROSS, Capt. 1st Rifles, Pike Co. April, 1832."
Captain Ross then called upon Benjamin Barney at his blacksmith shop in Atlas and told him of the order he had received, and for him forthwith to mount a horse and start out to notify the settlers to assemble immediately at Atlas. Barney was engaged at his forge at the time, making a plow; but he straightway laid down his hammer and tongs, untied his leathern apron, left his fire to smolder and die, mounted a horse and started upon his mission. He first went to the cabin of a settler at the mouth of Blue Creek, then made a circuit of the county, summoning all to assemble at Atlas forthwith. The settlers, almost without exception, dropped his work, mounted and set out for Atlas.

From the accounts of Colonels Ross and Barney, recounting the incidents of that memorable muster to the historian of 1880, are drawn the major portions of the following narrative:

When the settlers, riding in from all parts of the county, had assembled at Atlas, a martial fife and drum corps (comprised of Dexter Wheelock, a drummer in the War of 1812, and others who had participated in that war) began to discourse music to arouse the patriotic fervor of the militia. The leaders soon discovered it was going to take more than music to kindle the patriotic fire to the desired heat. Something more potent must be had; so two buckets of whiskey were procured; the men were formed in two lines facing each other, and wide enough apart to permit two men to walk up and down the line between them. Captain Ross and Lieutenant Seeley started down the line, each with a bucket of liquor; followed two boys with water, then came the music. The understanding was that those who fell in behind the music would enlist for service. By the time the third round was made, one hundred men were in line, which was even more than the county's quota under the call.

William Ross was elected captain, and Benjamin Barney first lieutenant. The company disbanded to meet again at Hinman's (near modern Griggsville) the following day at 10 a.m. The men went to their homes in various parts of the county to bid their families farewell and make necessary preparations for their campaign against the Indians. With few exceptions, every man was at Hinman by sunrise on the day appointed.

The company then started for Beardstown, place of rendezvous. The Illinois river was high and difficult to cross. The ferry would carry but six horses at a trip and while waiting the horses stood in mud up to their knees. It was a gloomy time, and the liquor was all gone. Captain Ross was among the first to cross, Lieutenant Barney remaining with the men upon the western bank. Barney's men became restless. Something had to be done. Barney sent word to Ross to send over a jug of whiskey. This was done; a fire was started, the men striking it by the flint locks of their guns; the whiskey was circulated, and once more the troops were in good spirits and ready to face any danger. The last of the troops did not get across the river until 11 o'clock that night.

The Pike troops reached Beardstown the next day, the first to report at the rendezvous Governor Reynolds and some leading officers were already there. The Pike company, being too large, was divided into two companies. Barney was made captain of one and Joseph Petty of the other. James Ross was made first lieutenant of Captain Petty's company, and Lewis Allen of Captain Barney's company. Capt. William Ross was chosen colonel and aide of the commanding general. It was April 25, 1832, that William Ross became Colonel Ross.

Colonel Ross was now 40. Among the Sangamon county troops was a lank, awkward youth of 23 who attracted the Colonel's attention. The Sangamon troopers called him Abe. Colonel Ross warmed to the boy. He appointed him captain of one of the Sangamon companies. Years later, in the midst of another war, the two met again, in Washington, in the White House.

"Colonel, I expected you to be here and take a hand in this trouble before this time," said the former Sangamon county youth, now bowed beneath the burden of a great war. And Colonel Ross answered, "I have been blind, Mr. President, for three years, or I would have been here." Colonel Ross's eyesight began to fail before the outbreak of the Civil war.

From Beardstown, the troops marched to Rock Island, where they were mustered into the United States service by General Zachary Taylor. At Fort Armstrong, which was at that point, there were then only about 50 United States troops. The Pike volunteers, with others, then marched up toward Dixon on the Rock river, following the Indians. They failed to overtake the tribes. No encounter was had and not a ball was fired at the enemy in the fifty-day campaign.

The troops, running out of provisions, sent to Chicago, but in that present great grain and meat-packing center they were unable to get a barrel of either pork or flour. The Pikers went to Ottawa and shared with some troops there. Obtaining enough provisions to last about three days, they then marched down to the rapids where there was a government boat loaded with provisions. There they drew rations for their homeward march. Captain Barney drew seven days' rations for his men, but Captain Petty, thinking they would get home in three or four days, drew only four days' rations, much to the regret of himself and his men later on. The private of this call received eight dollars a month and were paid off that fall at Atlas by United States agents who visited there.

The Black Hawk war proved a stepping stone to future greatness for an unusually large number of brilliant young men who afterward loomed large in the histories of the state and nation. Two, Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln, were elected to the Presidency; another, Jefferson Davis, became President of the Southern Confederacy; Governor John Reynolds took the field in person against Black Hawk; Thomas Ford, Joseph Duncan, Thomas Carlin, William L. D. Ewing and John Wood later sat in the Governor's chair; Sidney Breese, Orville H. Browning, James Semple and William L. D. Ewing became United States Senators from Illinois; John A. Logan, John A. McClernard and Winfield S. Scott became distinguished generals in the U. S. Army, and Albert Sidney Johnston and Joseph E. Johnston became famous Confederate generals; Peter Cartright, the great camp-meeting preacher, Henry Eddy of Shawneetown, Murray McConnel, Zadoc Casey, John T. Stuart, law partner of Lincoln, were among those who participated in the campaign.

William Ross, coming out of the Black Hawk war as Colonel William Ross, knew intimately the glorious comrades of that war named above. Many of them he entertained at one time or another in his home in Pike county. Honored in such goodly company, he became a political power in the state and a treasured counselor of Lincoln. On the mustering out of the Whig party, he cast his lot with the Republicans and was vice-president of the first state convention of that party held May 29, 1856 at Bloomington, which was attended by Lincoln, Browning, Wentworth, Yates, Lovejoy, Oglesby and other great leaders of the day. General John M. Palmer was president of the convention, which has become historic. There it was that Lincoln made his famous "lost speech," when those attempting to report the speech threw pens and paper aside and lived only in the glory of the hour.

Colonel Ross became a delegate from the fifth congressional district to the national convention which nominated Lincoln, at Chicago, on May 16, 1860, being an important factor in turning the nomination to that great leader. His acquaintance with the people of the east, and especially with the friends of Governor Seward, whom the eastern delegates were eager to nominate, stood him in good stead when it came to turning those delegates to a consideration of Mr. Lincoln, who was nominated on the third ballot.

Like his friend, Governor John Wood, Colonel William Ross lived into his 82nd year, passing away at his home in Pittsfield on May 31, 1873. At his death, he was survived by two sons, Marcellus, both at Atlas in 1824, and William, both of whom then resided in the far west; and two daughters, Mrs. D. F. Kellogg of Chicago, and Mrs. Anna Matthews, widow of Col. A. C. Matthews, who resided in Pittsfield. Two grandchildren, Mrs. Florence Lewis and Ross Matthews, still live in Pittsfield.

Colonel Ross is buried in the Pittsfield West cemetery, beside the road that leads from Atlas, the second county seat of Pike county, to Pittsfield, the third county seat, both of which seats of county government he had the honor of naming.