UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY A3" URBANA-CHAMPAIQN ILL HIST. SURVEY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/glamorousgalenajOOhobb if. ^ # ij Jw 'VW ':■' %1# -&0 *% WgZ gSUs $05 Nevada St. [film / o2)aviete (giMt ii //teJLlttlc <=)mtjetland okcrLL inoa RICHARD- GEAfc-HOB&S - PhD a amorous Gal ena ar\< Jo Daviess County Little Switzerland of Illinois Fourth Edition Cover Design hy Mrs. Annie Hobbs Woodcock ®p RICHARD GEAR HOBBS, Ph. D. Copyright 1939 Riehard Gear Hobbs Gazette Print Galena, Illinois ^^ ahUmt THE PIONEER MOTHER Pioneer Days White men began to appear in the Galena region in the second decade of the last century. In 1818 the Armstrong Brothers, John and Tyler, made their way down from the Green Bay country. They travelled over rough trials and along un- familiar streams, through a land inhabited only by Indians and wild beasts, till they came to the spot where Galena now stands, and there built a log cabin. But during the ensuing winter some- thing occurred to disturb their stay and they moved up into Wisconsin. Francis Bouthiliier came along in the spring and moved into the deserted cabin, becoming the first permanent inhabitant of the future town. John W. Shull and Doctor Samuel Muir were the next comers, but not until 1820. Thomas January and his wife ar- rived shortly after, so Mrs. January was the first white woman to set foot in the new settlement. There is no monument to her, but there well might be one on top of or at the foot of the bold, high hill at the north end of the present town, that high spot which was called "The Point." At the foot of that hill a few rude log cabins housed the be- ginnings of the community. In 1822 Payne, Carneil, Suggett and James Johnson came up the river from Kentucky, pre- cursors of many to arrive later from the south. The next year Doctor Moses Meeker and James Harris came in, and the first steamboat to come up the Galena river, the Virginia, tied up at the rude wharf. 1824 was marked by the birth of the first white child in the settlement, James Smith Hunt, and by the buildingofthe^first store structure.^ Frederick Dent, of St. LouisTlater the father- in-law of General Grant, constructed this first place of business- Another notable event marked the year. Meeker began clear- ing land for a farm, the first in this region. 1826 was an eventful year for the pioneers. The settle- ment consisted of less than a score of log houses. But those little houses sheltered a brave group of people. Isolated, lack ing nearly every thing essential for civilized life, they were surrounded by thousands of Indians who might grow hostile any day, and assault them with torch, tomahawk and scalping knife. Meat was abundant, for wild game was everywhere, and supplemented the otherwise scanty fare, which was spread upon rough tables, where plain benches took the place of chairs, 21 and the only light at night was a tallow candle, or the blazing fire upon the hearth. The activities of each household centered about that fire, especially in winter. Every householder was of necessity a woodsman. He must be familiar with an axe and a cross-cut saw, for the open fireplace was a glutton for fuel and ate wood by the cord. The fire seldom went out on the hearth. If it did some one must go to the neighbor's for live coals with which to start it again, for there were no matches. A flint and tinder box could be used, but the bringing of coals from a friendly neighbor's fire seems to have been the usual plan. Life lacked many an- other thing besides matches in those days, the absence of which would make existence seem bare and very difficult to people of today. Every woman's hand was familiar with the loom and the carding tools, the flax wheel and spinning wheel. For women there were no hours of leisure, and for men no eight hour day. A ten hour day would have spelled paradise for them. Life meant the hardest toil for everybody just to keep soul and body together. To understand Galena's historic background one must re- call the hardships of these first pioneers. / In that notable year, 1826, the little village got its name. It was not much of a place, but it was the biggest town in the northern half of Illinois, and the pioneers seemed to think that was enough for a christening. The honor of picking the right name fell to Richard Chandler when a group of men gathered to settle the important question. He reminded the others that galena was the common name for sulphide of lead, and that was what would make the village into a real town, if anything ever did, for that was what all of them were hunting for in the hills, so they agreed on that name for the community. nC. That year Galena got a post office. The next nearest post office in the state was at Peoria, a small settlement, and the next beyond that was at Vandalia, the then state capital, four hundred miles to the south. That four hundred miles was a stretch of unbroken wilderness, for the most part, inhabited only by wild creatures, including red men, who were more or less hostile. There were no cross roads for there were no roads to cross each other. Indian trails ran their winding ways through forests, across prairies and along crooked streams. When win- ter came, with deep snows and ice bound streams, the Missis- sippi river was blocked for six months. The dwellers in the 22 at X fifteen log cabins tucked in at the foot of what is now known- as ^Shot Tower hill , were cut off from the rest of the world. That same year Galena got its first school. Many of those arriving were educated people and a school was a necessity they thought. There seemed to be no lack of doctors, but an- other came along in the Fall, Dr. Horatio Newhall, destined to be a dominant factor in the community. He wrote to his brother back east that he was not sure whether he was in Illinois or Wisconsin. Even Uncle Sam was a bit confused about where Galena really was, for, when the post office was located, it was described as "Fevre River Post Office in Crawford County, Illinois." There was a Crawford County, but it was across the line in Wisconsin. In writing to his brother in Massachusetts soon after his ar- rival the Doctor said there were fifteen log houses in the town. This little island of settlement in the great sea of unbroken wilderness certainly entitles those who had the courage to create it, to something more than ordinary praise. The news that lead was being mined successfully in the Fevre River country soon spread to the east and the south. On horseback, by ox cart, and on foot, men began to arrive ki in- creasing numbers during the spring and summer of 1827. /\ Many came up the Mississippi river, one of the largest groups arriving in April from Alton, Illinois. It was a company that had come from Massachusetts in 1820 to the little village near the mouth of the Illinois river. In this Alton group was John Woods, later Governor of the State, who, with his wife, left the argonauts near the present site of Quincy. Woods liked the looks of that country, and became the founder of the city of Quincy. The rest of these New-England-born voyageuis made their way up stream with plenty of toil and difficulty, fighting the bitter current in small boats, until they reached Galena, where they added their hastily built log houses to the others at the foo t of "The Point." In this group was Henry Dodge, sub- sequently Territorial Governor of Wisconsin, and Hezekiah H. Gear, destined to be the most active and richest miner in the lead region. In this same year Colonel Henry Gratiot, capable Indian agent, successfully negotiated with the Indians, and settled a bitter land dispute between the pioneers and the Winnebago tribe. He and his brother, John P. B. Gratiot, founded Gratiot's Grove, a mining settlement of importance a few miles from Ga- 23 * NSWCOMS 505 Naval? s# lena and were two of the most capable and influential men, among the pioneers who opened up the Galena region. That same year Jo Daviess County was organized, and a Circuit Court was established with Richard M. Young as Judge. Before the year closed Charles S.Hempstead and Moses Hugh- lett arrived the first destined to be a Mayor of the town and a prominent lawyer, and the other first Sheriff of the County. $2$ -r> The following year the population numbered 800 in the town itself and the surrounding population was estimated at 4000, busy with pick and shovel in a feverish search for lead. That year John Dowling built his rock house, a combination store and dwelling. It stands on Diagonal street, and is the oldest building in the town today, and looks the part. That Galena's intellectual outlook and ambition were be- yond that of most far western towns is attested by the fact that in what might be called still primitive days it brought to its Lyceum platform the greatest scholars, the most eloquent orators, the foremost thinkers of the land. This would have been quite ordinary in a New England town of the same size, but not then in the far West. Here are the names of only some of the wise, the brilliant in art, poetry, philosophy, statesmanship, whose voices were heard here down through the years — Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bayard Taylor, James Russcdl Lowell, Sal- mon P. Chase, George Bancroft, Jennie Lind, John G. Saxe, Charles Sumner, Charles A. Dana, Adeline Patti, Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln. Galena people dug for lead and trafficked for gold but from the first had intellectual aspirations. In the stirring history of Galena the two greatest fraternal organizations in the world have played well their parts. The records show a Masonic Lodge was functioning here in 1826. Illustrious names appear upon its records. The Odd Fellows came a little later, but at that have passed the century mark of their local history. Through these lodges have passed many men whose names have been familiar far beyond the borders of the town. Personal mention should be made of many early pioneers but space is too limited to list them all. The Furlong family is one of the oldest in Jo Daviess County. The grandfather of James E. Furlong acquired land in the early twenties in what is now Vinegar Hill Township, and there built a house in 1824. It was a log house, is still standing, boarded over and used as a granary. Probably this it 24 the oldest structure now standing in the county, oldest ever used as a home. The name of Rawlins came into the town when James D. Rawlins arrived from Missouri where he had, as a boy, gone with his father in 1817. His daughter Mary was the mother of James B. Sheean. John A. was the son of James D. immortal- izing the name by his brilliant military service in the Civil war as chief of Grant's staff and the greatest friend Grant every had. Had he not died in 1869 at the early age of thirty-seven when Secretary of War in Grant's cabinet, he might well have been the man to succeed Grant in the White House, for his outstand- ing ability and record made him a logical man for the presi- dency. The unwise friends of Grant who over-persuaded the warrior to allow his name to be used for a third time in a presi- dential contest, would have been halted by Rawlins' common sense. He would have saved his great friend from the defeat which had never come before in war or peace while he stood by. Samuel Hughlett came to Galena in 1827. He owned and operated a smelter just north of town. He was succeeded by his son Thomas B. His grandson, S. J. Hughlett, is president of the First National Bank of Galena today. James G. Soulard, the first Galenian, it is said, to ascend the Mississippi from Missouri to St. Paul, lived to a ripe old age as an honored citizen of the town. The family is now repre- sented here by the Kittoes and Mrs. J. W. Crawford, grand- daughter of the old pioneer. She gave the museum the first piano that ever came into this part of the great Northwest Ter- ritory. Its keys are mute with age, yet tell their story of the old days. One early settler, Darius Hunkins, was a man of great constructive ability. He was a builder of two bridges across the Galena river. He was particularly active in railroad building up and down the Misissippi Valley. He was a contractor for the construction of considerable portions of the Illinois Central, the Baltimore and Ohio, and other important lines. In 1829 Daniel Wann came to the mining town from Mary- land. In the fifties, after a successful career as a vigorous mer- chant, he became postmaster and surveyor of customs. Galena was then an important port of entry and the custom's officer was a busy official. Wann was a man of great activity in muni- cipal affairs of all sorts. He was a commanding personality in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the first Noble 25 Grand, that is the presiding officer of the first lodge of the Odd Fellows Order founded here in 1838. The first lawyer to settle in Galena was John Turney, a young man of brilliant intellect whose influence upon the com- munity was quickly felt. He arrived from Tennessee in 1826 with his wife, Nancy Jane, and two sons, John Jr., and William. He was called upon by the community to take a leading part in all public matters such as the organization of a library associa- tion, the wisdom of introducing a public school system, the tangled question of lot ownership in the town. The substantial stone house he built on Spring street over a century ago is pointed out as one of the old landmarks. Hit death in 1844 was counted a great loss to the community. David Sheean came with his parents to Galena in 1834. He was for years an attorney here and a man of wide influence in the community. He married the daughter of John C. Spare who was one of the successful merchants here and an outstanding Odd Fellow. In 1809, Charles S. Hempstead, already referred to, a boy of 16 in Connecticut, got the Western fever. With one of his brothers he sailed down to Virginia, caught wagon rides across to the Ohio, and found the summer stage of the water too low to float anything but a canoe, so the two paddled their way down to Shawneetown, headed for St. Louis. The only way to cross Illinois was to walk and that is what they did, finding St. Louis a village of 1500 people, mostly French. Hempstead practiced law in St. Louis and St. Genevieve, tried politics and did not like the game, and found his way to Galena in 1829. Here he made a record as a lawyer and a man that was without a mar. He was a long time law partner of E. B. Washburne. He was a churchman, a citizen of wide influence, a lawyer of large ability and high standing. His son William for many a year carried forward here the fine influence of the Hempstead name. He walked in the foot, steps of his father as a man of integrity and civic service. Record should be made of the useful life of W. H. Snyder who served his day well; and the Felts, L. S. and B. F., the latter the founder of Galena's splendid library, finer for a town of this size than the public seems to realize; and Wm. and R. M. Spensley, so long faithfully serving in the courts as well as in the church. Mention could be made here of only a few pioneers who came to Galena in the very early days. Of the families founded 26 in the late thirties and in the fourties and fifties and not even a list can be given for lack of space. On Main street, across from the mouth of Diagonal, is an old fashioned tin shop. It has been there a long time with John Meusel, eighty years old, more or less, pounding away at an old-time bench, still cutting and soldering tin and making metal things that people call for. He is one of the institutions of the city, and if you want to find out anything, or about any- body, connected with Galena long, long ago, go in and see John. He knows and can tell you. He carries a smile on his ruddy face, and some very pronounced political opinions in a head that wears a hat bought no one can guess just how long ago. If his picture could be put on this pace you would see the portrait of one sturdy citizen, an individualist who will al- ways run his own shop, thing his own thoughts, and have his own say while he stays above the sod. He is a sort of embodi- ment of the old Galena spirit which never walked with bowed head or fear of any man. Monument on Site of Old Block House. Placed by Priscilla Mullens Chapter D. A. R. 27 MAIN STREET WITH HIGH SCHOOL IN THE MIDDLE DISTANCE LOOKING DOWN FROM PROSPECT STREET Pig k & Shovel ""^Days CAPTAIN H. H. GEAR-Miner From an old painting in the Museum Pick and Shovel Days The first shipment of lead down the Mississippi to St. Louis was made in 1816, by Colonel George Davenport. Indians had mined it. Squaws smelted it in their simple devices for recover- ing it from the crude ore. No one seems to know whether that first consignment was big or little, but it was followed by in- numerable shipments of the heavy metal, the production of which rose in 1845 to sixty-five million pounds in the United States, Galena furnishing fifty-four million pounds of the total. Indians had mined lead in their primitive ways for years before the white miners came to Illinois. They used sharp sticks and simple digging tools made of deer horns. They seldom penetrated the ground very far, gathering only the ore cropping out on the surface, just what was easily reached with their sim. pie implements. But since a peck of ore was worth a peck of corn they did not need to starve when the ore was sticking out of the hillsides where the rains had washed away the soil. Their smelting methods were as primitive as their ways of mining, yet it was the report of their success in finding ore and recovering lead that spread through the frontier settlements, and finally to the eastern seaboard, that started the trek of mining men to the misnamed Fever river. Lead mining had its discouragements as well as its suc- cesses. Many prospectors eked out just a bare living. Some combined great hardships with final success. The story of Cap- tain Hezekiah H. Gear's experience well illustrates the bitter hazards faced by men in the mining industry, and the high re- wards which sometimes came to those who were able to win through. It is told here to afford a concrete example of the hardships and successes of those old days. Long illness on the way from New England stripped Gear of all he had. With his family he landed in Galena penniless. His first log cabin, at the foot of Shot Tower Hill, had a dirt floor and a sod roof. The roof leaked, of course. When it rained the family retreated to the driest corner and hoped the storm would not last forever. The wife and mother remembered her father's comfortable home in the east beside a beautiful lake, bnt did not reproach her husband for bringing her into the wilderness, for she too, had the courage of the pioneer breed. Gear got him some land and began carving a farm from the 31 * NEWCOMC 605 Nftvada St timbered acre*, meanwhile pecking away at the hillsides for ore, which he found in only limited quantities. The Black Hawk War came, and as a Captain he served in that at the head of a mounted company he recruited from among his neighbors. When the war was over he went back to the grinding toil of clearing land and digging for lead. He started what was literally a one man mine. Too poor to hire a man to work the mine windlass, he would fill his huge bucket at the bottom of the shaft with dirt and rock, climb up to the mine mouth on rough ladders he had made himself, pull up the bucket and empty it, lower it and climb down to fill it again. By repeating that slow process, he had the courage to burrow into the ground for riches he could not be sure he would ever find. Bye and bye when he thought the main shaft was down deep enough he began to drift, that is drove a tunnel laterally, hoping from surface indications, that he might strike lead. Ore was sometimes found in cave-like places, underground cavities, lined on all sides with galena crystals. One day Gear's pick broke through into some sort of cavity. Eagerly he cleared an entrance, crawled in and held up his candle. The light flashed back from ore on every side. There were huge crystals of galena all around him. Soon, as he gazed about him, it began to dawn on him that he was no longer a poor man. What he saw meant that he and his family were no longer to be pinched by poverty. He said afterwards that the tears ran down his cheeks and he could do nothing but drop his tools and hurry away to tell his wife and children of his great good fortune. He had, as a mat- ter of fact, uncovered what proved to be one of the greatest ore deposits ever found in the mining district. General A. L. Chetlain says in his book of Galena reminis- cences: "One of the most noted men who came to Galena in 1827 was Hezekiah H. Gear. He was tall, slender, wiry, ofir- r epressible energy, and soon proved to be a successful business man. He engaged in mining on a large scale, hired men by the score to do his work, built smelters and ran them, and also engaged in trading in Galena. At this time he was the richest man in the lead mines." So it was in the pick and shovel days of Galena. Thousands got a bare living from the mines, some gained riches, but all worked hard. The industry as a whole made the city for a time t he richest in the state. The Mexican and Civil wars were won 32 with bullets ninety-five percent of which were made of lead from the Galena mines. If the pioneers had not come here and opened the mines of this region there would not have been bul- lets to fight even one of those wars. The Galena area was then the greatest lead mining region in the world. No wonder its population leaped up to 14,000 during the eighteen forties, its most prosperous decade. How much of the surrounding country was included in that census no one now knows, but for those days it was a large number reckoned on almost any basis of calculation that may have been used. At about the opening of that decade it was the boast of the stage coaches that they made the run from Galena to Chi- cago in a single day. The horses were changed every twelve miles. They did not trot, they ran. The passengers did not sleep. They were probably too busy holding onto their seats to snatch even cat naps. They paid $13 for the exciting, break-neck ride of 200 hectic miles. Much of this hurried going to and fro be- tween the world's lead metropolis and Chicago was caused by the awakening interest of Galena people in the growing city by the lake. They had money to invest. The prosperous mining industry kept up a steady flow of capital into their pockets. Chicago began to look like a promising place and its real estate a good investment for their surplus dollars. Many an old Chi- cago family was first a Galena family, and was drawn, bag and baggage, to the windy city to make real estate investments to their very great financial advantage. There were so many who travelled that path that at one time Chicago people complained Galena people were running their city. Galena's Golden Decade, the eighteen forties, opened with the passing of the village trustees, and the reorganization of the town as m city under a special charter from the State Legis- lature. Charles H. Hempstead was elected Mayor. At about this time Colonel William S. Hamilton was mining northeast of Galena. His mother came to visit him, spending much time in Galena as the guest of the Gratiotsand Gears. She was the daughter of the great New Yorker, General Schuyler, and the widow of Alexander Hamilton, first Secre- tary of the United States Treasury, the most brilliant states- man in American history, shamefully shot down by AaronBurr in a duel which he tried to avoid. The younger Hamilton re- ma ined in Galena and vicinity until the gold rush of '49 when he went to California where he died not long after his arrival. 33 The discovery of gold on the Pacific coast drew many miners J from the Galena lead region, and slowed down mining in Jo Daviess County. In the fifties the price of lead sagged, river traffic, hit by railroad competition, began to decline, and Ga- lena's commercial life commenced to slacken its pace. The old mining town gave the name "Sucker" to the na- tives of Illinois. There is a fish of that name which comes, or used to come, in great numbers every spring out of the Missis, sippi river into the streams of northern Illinois. It disappeared entirely in the fall. In the eighteen thirties and forties many people came to Jo Daviess County from the central and south- ern parts of the state, to work in the mines during the summer. They disappeared with the first cold days in the autumn. They came and went with the suckers. Galena transferred the name of the fish to these drifting miners. The name was carried down state, and finally any one born in the state was known as a "Sucker." Galena gave Ulinoisans their nickname for all time to come. Many ask if the lead in the old field has all been mined out. Certainly not. Some of it can be reached only by installing pumping machinery to dispose of the water which would in- terfere with depth mining in many places. It is believed there are many deposits of ore which have never been uncovered but which would be located if the price of lead should ever justify the search for them. Lead produced as a by-product in gold and silver mining in the west affects prices by its cheap recovery. So the old mines of Jo Daviess County are idle and new ones Seldom opened. Yet the old mining urge stirs some one some- times to buy a pick and shovel and try his hand at the ancient game played by the red men, and by the hardy pioneers so in. tensely. Conditions might change, and the old days of hectic search might come back again, but for the present, at least, a genuine mining pick is a curiosity along the diminishing Galena river, and has a proper place only in the Museum ss a relic of days that are no more, representing an industry that belongs to a romantic past. But when the glory of the mining days faded a new glory caught up the old community and set it above all other towns of the middle west. Its fame surpassed them all. Its military leadership created a story the ancient town tells with just pride, and will to the end of time. 34 . t w. W; m y PLENTY OF STEPS TO THE BASEMENT * ,• *?*'i Steps and Terraces Mounting steps and heavy ter- race walls are among the most interesting sights in Galena. On the hillside behind the Museum building are terraces built over a hundred years ago, and they are scattered along other hill- sides. Thesoaring steps shown on this page are the Old High School Steps up which Grant climbed on his way to the little brick cottage where he lived in the days when he was a humble clei k in his father's leather store.These steps are now replaced with ce- ment risers, up and down which the youngsters swarm four times a day. Hill climbing has been one of the heavy industries for well over a hundred years in old Ga- lena. In winter it becomes a task when ice and snow cover the long flights scattered every where about the town. Horsemen say a hill country is best for the rearing of thoroughbreds. It gives them lung space and leg muscles. Maybe hill climbing ac- counts in part, for the staying qualities of the people of Gale- na. The population has not shif- ted as much as in many other places. Most of the early families are still represented here. 36 A afe^4* J^TEAMBOAT^pAYS BOATS AT GALENA WHARF In the old days there were sometimes a dozen tied up at the wharf at one time. , A ;..„V' 3*1^ ' - - ' ^i|.-. .;.■■:. .■'■■'. S 5 1;PS§ ? f rf ■ ' Wf IV ■ :■ ; j|; if f | l : || :VS:..,„.;<. ■«»> -fay ./ : . \ f. , ■ WK-x-m*? HBit *^** . ', ^ : __ - "|Wf^ . < , § '■.'-:■ .:': :''-' : ' v : ?-;'I;'5S?t5?- : j£ |i|il: :! f ' :; ' ,:::::::-;3W' 4 ■ | T . ^ \ ' •^■- IlISllllllllllllSillHIlliir. ' : - ? J* i / ■ : ! ** 3U|^%^f ^'-i-'i' M * ^ v ' tt#ISS'\ /' Nast's Great Painting "PEACE IN UNION" Steamboat Days Back in the time when the gutteral whistles of hoarse throated river steamboats echoed from Pilot Knob and "The Point/' Galena was passing through its most colorful days. The river was six Umcs its pj^sejitjyjdtli^ncLfii te g n feet deep. That was deeper than the channel of the Mississippi itself save when that stream was in flood. The old Mississippi steamboat was not modeled after any other but was itself the original of its type, a type now found on many a stream clear round the world. Men used to say, and still repeat the gag, that it could run on a heavy dew. It slid over many a hidden sand bar with only scant inches to spare. No other form of transportation was ever more picturesque in its surroundings and attendant incidents, none ever got tangled up in so much romance, as the boats that shuttled back and forth between New Orleans and St. Paul on the bosom of old man river, with Galena the principal stop on the upper river whether they were headed up or down stream. The storied race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee was just one chap- ter in the long record. There were constant tests of speed, with fat pork pitched under the boilers to make fiercer Bret and more steam, whether the traditional negro sat on the safety valve or not, with plenty of betting and excitement on the side. There was a long line of sweating blacks toiling up and down the gang planks with varying burdens on their backs, crooning songs in a minor key, while the boat's mate swore at them roundly and picturesquely whatever they did or did not do; the happy, laughing, singing darkeys shuffling about on every levee wherever the boat tied up to discharge or take on cargo; the ever shifting panorama from the verdure of the semi- tropics, to the somber pines and hemlocks of the far north, and swiftly back to the cane and cotton, and the magnolia trees under southern skies; the planter with his handlebar mustache and inevitable Prince Albert coat; the broad hatted gambler lurking about for his prey, the unsuspectiong or inexperienced traveller with a bank roll; the constant changes from the soft voices of the gulf coast, to the harsher, stronger accent of the upper river, and then back again to the musical speech of the deep south; the sphynx-like pilot who must have in his head a well remembered, thousand mile long diagram of the whole 39 river bottom, to be read as swiftly and unerringly backward as forward, with the ever present danger that some restless sandbar had taken a notion to skip from one side of the river to the other, while the pilot's back was turned. Mississippi steamboating in the old days was a constantly shifting panorama shot through and through with romance and the unexpected. Many of the pilots made their homes in Galena, men like ruddy whiskered Tom Burns who lived in the ancient stone house of John Turney, lawyer. Turney died in the be- ginning of his brilliantly promising career. Skillful pilots drew down a thousand dollars a month and more, a huge salary for those days, when a dollar meant something in the matter of purchasing power. But the pilot was the key man in the river traffic bussiness. He was the man who held the fate of cargo, boat and passengers in his hand, and was the real king of the river. There were such men as Captain LeGrand Morehouse, of the steamer "Iowa" and of many other boats, Capt. Orren Smith, Ben Campbell's partner, Capt. Sereno E. Porter, Capt. Gideon Stoddard, Capt. Stephen Tunker, and perhaps greatest of them all, Captain Dan Harris. Here is a partial list of other river captains of Galena and some of the steamboats they commanded. One can imagine the thrilling adventures these men had shuttling their boats back and forth between St. Paul and New Orleans. They knew just how "Ole Man River Kept Rollin' Along." Capt. Daniel Smith Harris — "Hermoine," "Frontier," "Smelter," steamers "Pizarro," "Pre-emption," "Relief," "Sutler," "Otter," "War Eagle," "Time," "Lightfoot," "Senator," "New St. Paul," "West Newton," "Galena," "Grey Ea- gle," "Dr. Franklin." Capt. R. Scribe Harris — steamer "Smelter" Capt. Thomas Burns — steamers "War Eagle," "Kate Cassel" Capt. Orren Smith — steamers "West Newton," "Brazil," "Nominee," "Senator," "Yankee" Capt. John Atchison — steamers "Lynx," "Highland Mary" (died, Galena, 1850 of cholera) Capt. Smoker — steamer "Dubuque" (1st) Capt. Edward Beebe — steamer "Dubuque" (2nd) Capt. David G. Bates — steamers "Galena," "Rufus Putnam" (died in Galena in 1850) Capt. E. H. Gleim — steamers "Warrier," "Wisconsin," "Monona," (died in Galena in 1856) "Royal Arch," "Pawnee," "Highlander," "Ocean Wave" Capt. William Fisher — steamers "City of Quincy," "Alex Mitchell," "Fannie Harris," also Dan Rice's circus boat. Capt. Paul Kerz — steamers "W. J. Young," "J. W. Mills" Capt. Adam Yunker — steamer "Douglas Boardman" Capt. Thos. O'Rourke — steamer "Dexter" Capt. John McCarthy — steamer "Julia B" Capt. Geo. Uncapher — steamer "Willie Wilson" Capt. Geo. Schneider — steamers 'A. J. Dorchester," "Minnie Schneider" 40 A book could be written about the many steamboat owner and captains who lived in Galena, and about their adventures and thrilling experiences on the river. The steamboat was the agency for Galena's commercial dominance over a wide area. It took away the millions of pounds of pig lead the smelters piled on the wharf, as the metal started on its way to the Eastern seaboard or to Europe. It brought back money and goods from distant places.The women of Galena wore bonnets and dresses from Paris quite as a mat- ter of course in those days. The steamboat put the town in touch with the shops on Canal street in New Orleans and on the busiest streets in gay Paris. Because Galena had money, and because the steamboats of the Mississippi river touched her dockevery day, people and things came from the old world and the new. On the street one day Vince Gear showed the writer a gold watch his Galena-born grand-father got from Eng- land, made in the time of George the fourth and which a re- liable jeweler appraised as having $250.00 worth of gold in it, and Leo LeBron exhibited a curious ornament Napoleon Bon- aparte gave to his great grand-father. Strange and costly things were not uncommon among Galena people in the old days and many of them are here to this day. The place was more cos- mopolitan than was many another city in the middle west a half century later. The steamboat was the telegraph, the tele- phone and the radio which connected Galena with the whole world, via New Orleans. It was no uncommon thing for English sovereigns and French francs to pass across the store counters on Main street. Every steamboat on the upper Mississippi was under the eye of a U. S. inspector whose office was in Galena, and was required to pass his examination. There were such men as Captain Tom Burns, and Captain Stephenson who filled this responsible office. George W. Girdon held the office for many years proving himself a capable and reliable public servant. His daughter married Sam Smith, son of General John Corson Smith, and that took the family to Chicago where every mem- ber of the Masonic order probably knew Sam and certainly loved him, for his name at Medinah Temple in Chicago still stands today for all that was fine in the activities at that center of Masonic life. His daughter still carries forward in Chicago the Galena tradition, as do others in the big City by the Lake. Reference is here made to the John Corson Smith family as a sample of what has happened through the years. This small town, Galena, jogging along in its unexcited way, cherish- 41 ing its memories of a stirring and romantic past, keeps a strong hold on the affections of many who have wandered out from it to places near and far. The wanderers count it an honor to have been born here, or to have had as forebears some one of the pioneer families which founded the town so long ago that it was on the very fringe of civilization. The Virginia was the first steamboat to tie up at the Ga- lena landing. That was in 1823, indicating that Fulton's new in- vention, a boat propelled by steam power was quickly seized for transportation purposes on the Father of Waters. June 20th, 1823 came the Col. Bumford, sixty days out from Cincinnati, loaded with supplies and machinery. It was a keel-boat, maybe 15 feet beam, maybe 60 feet in length. It was propelled down the Ohio by the current and up the Mississippi by poling, "bushwacking," (pulling on overhanging trees and bushes), '"cordelling," dragging it against the fierce current with a rope over the men's shoulders, or tied to a tree farther up the shore. It was a tough job. The day it touched the shore in the shadow of "The Point" was Galena's real birthday. With its 30 adults, beside the children, it about quadruppled the population. Dr. Meeker was the chief man on that boat, and with him the Harrises, the father James, and D. S. the son, only 15 but destined to live to a ripe old age here. Because his life ran on to the time when history was being written the eaily years and people of the town were clearly and reliably recorded for his memory of the early days and people was clear. It is a picturesque procession which moves across the yel- lowing pages of Galena's yesterdays. There are red men in feathers and buckskin; hardy pioneers whose chief reliance was upon a sharp bladed axe and a ready rifle; slow moving ox- drawn covered wagons with wind torn canvas and creaking wheels; miners whose calloused hands were brothers to pick and shovel handles; captains and pilots who knew every bend and landing place along a thousand miles of river winding its crooked way to the sea. But the wild calls of the savage are stilled; the rifle hangs useless against the wall; the picks and shovels of the lead hunt- ers are red with the rust of a hundred years; the covered wag- ons have vanished and are forgotten; the hoarse whistles of the river boats no longer echo from the rocky hillsides. The town grows old, folds its hands and is peaceful, like an old man sitting in the sun, remembering. 42 D'OWLING HOUSE Setting for Mrs. Fairbanks' "aright Lpi d- DAVID SHEEAN HOME Once owned by Dr. Newhall and later by the Catholic church and used as the priest's home. Now the home of James B. Sheean. E. B. WASHB URNE HOME— Now the home of Mrs. F. T. Sheean A HOUSE lOF DIGNITY War~L)ays GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT When the hands of misguided and mistaken men reached out to pluck stars from the American flag where patriots had placed them to shine, they hoped, to the end of time, and Lin- coln, the man of sorrows in the White House, knew not where to turn for military leadership, Galena heard his call and sent him Grant, the man who knew how to fight. Galena backed that leader with a staff of men who had drawn their strength from the rock ribbed hills of the old mining town. So the stars stayed on the flag and the flag kept its place against the sky. There is no parallel in history for this thing that then hap- pened. The military chief in one of the world's greatest wars, picked his advisors from the little town from which he himself had come, men without military training or experience, his neighbors who he knew had common sense and patriotism, men without military ambitions and jealousies, but with deep devo- tion to a holy cause. With them to advise him he won every battle he fought. America owed plenty to old Galena and Gale- na people. When Fort Sumpter was fired on, and it became clear that the South would secede and fight, there was deep anxiety throughout the whole land. Galena stirred with uncertainty. At the first war meeting in the Court House, the chairman made a neutral speech. He wobbled between the North and the South. That was on April 18th, 1861. Sentiment in the town was divided. Many citizens had come from slave states. They could not forget their old mental slant on the slavery question. The community, where people from Kentucky, Missouri and other southern states had been a strong pioneer element, was divided in its sentiments. The people were profoundly stirred. One can well imagine that men looked at each other askance as they sat side by side in that historic gathering in the old Court House. What would be the final verdict and reaction of this heterogeneous com. munity? E. B. Washburne, then a member of Congress, was present, and really led the way in the historic gathering, which had a distinct bearing on his own later career, and on the lives of other distinguished Jo Daviess County citizens. Washburne ap- pealed to the patriotism of all who heard him, and his logical words startled those of sounder judgement. 47 Then a tall young lawyer, born and reared in the town, hurried to the platform. The people knew him as a man of high ideals, but little dreamed that they were listening to the one who was to be the chief personal friend and advisor of the greatest military leader of the century, a leader who was him- self sitting there quietly among them. High Destiny presided over that gathering, beginning there to thrust a group of Ga- lena men to the very summit of military and political power in the history of the country. The young lawyer was John A. Rawlins. His hair was black and his eyes keen, his face lean, his personality arresting, commanding. He was desperately in earnest as he appealed to his neighbors to stand by the flag, to give their lives, if need be, for the Union. He ended his impassioned appeal on a high note of patriotism. "We will stand by the flag of our country," he cried, "and appeal to the God of battles for support." U. S. Grant made a short speech pledging his loyalty to the Union. His were the words of a cool-headed military man of battle experience for he had done his part as a fighter in the Mexican war. He knew better than the others what war meant, but he did not hesitate. He pledged himself unreservedly to his country. A call was issued for a meeting to be held the next night in the same place, the Court House, at which it was proposed to ask for Volunteers. When Grant was made chairman of that second meeting some one objected because he was a Democrat and his wife had been a slave-holder. Feeling was intense. Grant made his position clear. If there was to be war he would stand by the flag. His words were brief, as always, and he went on with the meeting. He faced a crowd which jammed the place full of men who were not smiling. Every face was grim. The greatest crisis in the nation's history was upon them. The heart of Galena warmed to the Union cause. In one single day sentiment had crystalized. Nowhere in those dark days of initial uncertainty did loyalty flame higher than in Galena and Jo Daviess County. When the call for men to enlist was made the responee was in- stant and many moved to the front and put their names down as soldiers for the Union. Rawlins was the attorney for the Grant Leather Company which was doing a very considerable business at that time, and as such he was thrown into association with the younger Grant, They now teamed up and went from town to town in the county 48 holding war meetings and calling for volunteers. Rawlins was the chief talker but Grant spoke at every meeting, and every where men responded so that in a few days he was drilling a a company of one hundred men on the lawn of Washburne's home, and within a few months three other companies hurried to the front. Men from patriotic Jo Daviess County continued to enter the Union ranks as long as the war continued. No other county in the state, in proportion to its population, con- tributed more men to the Union army. Grant had landed in Galena just a year before the war. He had turned his back on bitter business failure in St. Louis, load- ed his family and scanty household goods on the steamboat Itasca, and headed up river. As the boat tied up at the Galena wharf, he, a man of sturdy, stocky build, wearing one of those ancient sky blue army overcoats with a cape, a coat certainly the worse for wear, carrying a kitchen chair in each hand, marched down the gang plank with his wife and children at his heels. Nobody paid any attention to him. He was just another human atom brought up the river by one of the steamboats which had been dumping them on the wharf for many a year. Unassuming, unpretentious, the man walked north on crooked Main street to the little leather store where an humble clerk- ship awaited him, not perhaps, because he was expected to be much of a salesman, but because he needed a job. When he had rented and moved into a little brick cottage atop the hill on High street, the town's chief citizen for all time, the man soon to become America's greatest military leader since the days of the Revolution, was at home in the historic old town, which was wholly unaware of what had hap- pened to it. Grant saw more in others than others saw in him. He at- tracted no particular attention during the next year as he went quietly about his inconspicuous work. But evidently he weigh- ed his neighbors. At the end of that year he knew the men about him to well that he could and did pick from among them an efficient staff to advise him well in all his battles from Fort Henry to Appomatox. But before he and Lee shook hands at the close of the war, like the good American fighters they were, he had many days of discouragement and delay. He went with that first Galena company to Springfield, and was asked to captain it, but refused. He knew that his training at West Point, and experience in the Mexican war, had fitted him for something more than a captaincy. Governor Yates had 49 no comprehension of his ability, though Washburne had gone to Springfield and introduced him to the war Governor. When a Democracy goes to war chaos reigns, for a time at least, and it was weeks before Grants chance came. Then he was made Colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry. Other Colonels loaded their soldiers on trains and had them hauled to St. Louis, the nearest concentration point for troops. Grant did an unheard of thing. His was a regiment of tur- bulent, undisciplined men, always in upheaval among them- selves, but their Colonel knew how to make soldiers out of raw material. He started his men on foot for Jacksonville and Quincy, and marched on foot with them. He would not stop on the Quincy side of the Mississippi, where they arrived late one afternoon, but shot them across to the West bank of the river for their night camp, Next day he started them over the dusty roads, and plodded along with them. By the time they reached Mexico, Mo., the point to which they were ordered for service, the men of this regiment knew something about what soldering meant, and had already been whipped into a fairly well disci- plined fighting unit. Soon Grant was made a Brigadier General and his Star began to mount the National Sky. Grant marched on. Belmont, Fort Henry, Donaldson, Shi- loah, marked the footsteps of a commander who never lost a battle. Just before Shiloah, came one of the bitter experiences which checkered this brilliant soldier's career. His record was one of unbroken success, yet military stupidity got him sus- pended for a couple of weeks, and another man into his shoes as commander of the Western Army. Fortunately for his coun- try this colossal blunder was quickly corrected. Only a town of high ideals could have produced such a group as the Galena men who surrounded and advised Grant at the front. First among them was John A. Rawlins, Grant's chief of staff, the young lawyer who had sounded the high note of patriotism in Galena's early war meeting, from whom his country would have had greater service if he had not been swept away by consumption contracted in the Civil war. He died while Secretary of War when he was only 37. As he tower- ed physically above the others on Grant's staff, so he did in in- fluence with his chief. He was the man who steadied Grant through the years of the Civil war. The great soldier leaned more heavily on Rawlins than on any other one man. Then there was General John Corson Smith, a contracting builder, close personal friend of Grant during that year just 50 before the war; General John E. Smith, a jeweler from bowed old Main street, next door to the leather store where Grant sold harness and saddles to the farmers from the nearby hills and valleys, a born soldier and real fighter; Lieutenant Colonel Melancthon Smith, making a trio of Smiths on the staff; Gen- eral Jasper A. Maltby, a gunsmith; General Wm. R. Rowley, clerk of the Circuit Court of Jo Daviess County; Lieutenant Colonial Edward D. Kittoe, a physician; General Augustus L. Chetlain, a merchant, and General Ely S. Parker, a full blooded Iroquois Indian and a Civil Engineer. No one can now tell how much of the great Grant's success was due to the advice of this group of business and professional men from a small Illinois town, who carried with them to the battle front, common sense, and bravery, born not of military training, but of patriotic devotion to the Union. If one would measure the bigness of Grant it is only neces- sary to go to the Memorial Home where he went to live after eight years in the White House, after sitting at the tables of kings and emporers clear round the world, after having his ears filled with the plaudits of the wise and mighty of every clime. It is a simple home and the things in it are unpretentious. The man who lived in that hill top house, in a quiet town, his country's most brilliant soldier in a hundred years, needed no pretentious surrounding to make him great. Galena is forever famous in this land because, when the Nation went to war to preserve the Union, it gave greater mili. tary leadership than any other community. Dr. J. C. H. Hobbs, Galena physician in the early 50's, was early in the civil war, of the 12th Iowa Infantry, then of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, a loyal Union regiment, and finally Brigade Surgeon. His Galena born wife, daughter of Captain H. H. Gear, insisted on going with her surgeon husband, as nurse. Early in the war there was no provision for hiring women nurses, so the Colonel said the only way was for the would-be nurse to regularly enlist as a soldier, which she did. Other wo. men got in by donning men's clothes, but careful search reveals the enlistment of no other known to be a woman at the time of enlistment. The hand of that Galena-born woman smoothed the pillow under the head of many a dying soldier, my mother's hand. 51 Grant, the Man Aside from his military deeds what wai Grant? What was he as a man? Was his brilliant record as a soldier based on good luck, or on good character and a reasoning mind ? He certainly came honestly by his military tendencies. Hit great grand-uncle and great grandfather, Captains in the French and English armies, both died in battle. For eight years his grandfather was a captain in the American Revolution and fought the Red Coats under Washington. When he turned with dislike from his father's tannary, and went to West Point to become a soldier, he was just answering the call of his blood. His mental ability cannot be questioned. He graduated from West Point at about the middle of his class at a time when forty per cent of the boys who went there did not last a year because the examinations were too much f©r them. He was the best horseman among the cadets. He was especially efficient in mathematics and stupid people do not excel in that line of brain activity. His mentality was especially shown in his very great ability to grasp and clearly understand the de- tails and phases of a battle as it proceeded. The ordinary com- mander seems to lay a plan and when the unexpected happens, he draws back to try some other plan. Grant thought best with powder smoke in his nostrils and the roar of guns in his ears. He knew what to do next no matter what happened, and in forty battles it was never to retreat. He never ordered a retreat. Only a keen and well balanced mind could have functioned as this man's did amid the confusion and swiftly changing action of a roaring battle. Tactics learned from a book, plans made before bullets began to sing and cannon to thunder, were not Grant's sole reliance. His mind was so big and clear that he seemed to sense every critical moment in a battle and met it with fine comprehension of what should be done about it. He was extremely patient and tolerant. When he sold saddles and bridles and harness in Galena he was doing something he did not care for, but no one heard him complain. When for weeks at Springfield he asked in vain for a regiment, and saw men given Colonel's commissions for political reasons, men who he knew had no training, or experience, or military ability to match his own, he was patient, and went on doing military chores for Governor Yates and others about the state capital. He had been fourteen years in the regular army, had been twice 52 cited for bravery in the Mexican war, and was made Captain for his efficiency as a soldier, yet at the beginning of the civil war he found himself pushed aside for weaker men. He must have been bitterly chagrinned, but held on and waited. When he began to climb toward the top many a critic had the tongue of an asp and stung him. But he never answered his critics. Just went on with his fighting. He was sincerely honest. No one could remember that he ever told a lie. In boyhood he was truthful and in manhood hated anything that smacked of deceit. He used no profanity. One of his staff defended his own profanity by saying it was necessary in the army, but Grant won the war without it. Grant was tenacious. If he turned away from farming and the real estate business at St. Louis it was because he was not trained for those things, not for lack of ability and persistence. He was educated to be a soldier and on that line he showed the tenacity of a bulldog. That was something he understood and went at with a fierce determination which would not let hiir stop short of complete victory. In his personal conduct he was particularly modest and unassuming. Pretense was no part of him. Press conferences in the White House seem not to have been known in his day. If they had been probably he would have let them die a natural death or might have furnished a violent one for them. He never sought publicity. He and vanity never became acquainted with each other. Grant was an independent thinker. He sought advice al ways but reached his own conclusions and acted on his owi judgement. He never pleaded an alibi but faced and shoulde; ed responsibility. The very day Lee was ready to surrendt i the Army of Virginia, and waited in the old McLean farmhouf c for the soldier from Galena, Grant was out on the field with members of his staff concerned about things to be done as tl < terrific struggle between the contending armies ended. He wes a man of action to the very last moment of the mighty dran a of civil conflict. When Grant was gone, and the world saw him no morr , those in Galena and elsewhere who knew him best remember- ed him as a man of high character, high purpose and hi[h conduct. 53 GALENA MEN ON THE STAFF OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT MAJOR GENERAL JOHN A. RAWLINS MAJOR GENERAL JOHN E. SMITH MAJOR GENERAL AUGUSTUS L. CHETLAIN BRIGADIER GENERAL JOHN CORSON SMITH BRIGADIER GENERAL ELY S. PARKER BRIGADIER GENERAL WM. R. ROWLEY BRIGADIER GENERAL JOHN O. DUER BRIGADIER GENERAL JASPER A. MALTBY Died at Vicksburg LIEUTENANT COLONEL EDWARD KITTOE LIEUTENANT COLONEL MELANCTHON SMITH Killed at Vicksburg OTHER GENERALS FROM GALENA BRIGADIER GENERAL EDWARD D. BAKER 1806-1864 U. S. Senator and Chief Justice of Oregon MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM R. MARSHALL 1810-1877 Governor of (Minnesota BRIGADIER GENERAL ALFRED T. SMITH li83>9-1905 Distinguished record. Born in Galena, son of (Major General John IE. Smith MAJOR GENERAL FRED D. GRANT 1850-190,2 iSon of General Grant Minister to Austria. Distinguished for Public Service. BRIGADIER GENERAL THOMAS L. LIVERMORE 1843-119)05 Born and reared in Galena Left College to enlist in the New Hampshire Militia Served in the Army of the Potomac. 54 5 m. . < ■ GRANT HOME BEFORE THE WAR GRANT MEMORIAL HOME 55 fmmmm Qmurgh AND Sghool^P)ays METHODIST CHURCH FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 59 SOUTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH m : -»l ST. MATTHEW'S LUTHERAN CHURCH 61 ST. MICHAEL'S CATHOLIC CHURCH ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH % Church and School Days Galena has good schools. It has taken long strides in edu- cational work since that day in 1826 when Dr. John Hancock opened the first school in the little frontier hamlet, which was still too young and too small to have a name. Beside the public schools there are two good parochial schools, one being main- tained by each of the two vigorous Catholic churches. The fine High School building is perched above the busi- ness section, and has a wide view of the Galena river valley and the verdant hillsides on which the town is built. The old High School steps of wood rose from Bench street to Prospect in one unbroken flight, but the new, of concrete can be negotiated in sections, with resting places along the way. The earlier generations, perhaps, had more stamina, and could make the grade without sitting down, though the present youngsters of the town seem about as fine as can be found any- where. If you have doubts about the number of steps, climb them the next time you come to Galena, and count the risers, 39 from Main street to Bench, and 200 from Bench to Pros- pect, 239 in all. The young people are given a chance to de- velop both leg muscles and brains and so ought to be able make their way in the world. Turning to the churches, it may be said the tradition is that the first public religious service held in Galena was conducted by an Episcopal clergyman, a Hudson Bay Company chaplain, on his way north to some of the company's trading posts. He was storm-stayed in Galena. When Sunday came he conducted services in the back room of a log store building on Main street opposite the present location of the DeSoto Hotel. The prayers were read to the raucus accompaniment of boisterous laughter from a hilarious group playing cards in the front part of the store. It is to be regretted that the name of that chaplain has been lost. Evidently he was one not to be kept from his work, by adverse surroundings. But it is claimed the first resident pastor was Rev. Aratus Kent, sent West by the Presbyterian Board of Missions. He had asked for a place so hard no one else would want it. It seemed a mining camp might be such a place, and Kent, fresh from college and theological seminary and just ordained, came to Galena in 1829. 63 If to him belongs the honor of being the first resident pastor, he just barely made it, for the Illinois Conference of the Methodist church, which then included the territory now cov- ered by the Rock River Conference, in 1828, appointed Rev. John Dew pastor at Galena. Dew was delayed in reaching his appointment, and set foot in Galena one week after the arrival of Kent. If that story is true then to Kent might go the honor of leading the long line of religious teacher* who have strongly influenced the old hillside town. But just here bobs up a fact that seems to be well estab- lished and is significant. When Dew arrived he found Rev. Reeves Carmack, a Methodist local preacher, who had been on the ground in Galena for several years, preaching from time to time, performing the marriage ceremony which indicates that he was an ordained minister. A local preacher in the Methodist church is not an irregular, irresponsible worker, but a definite and regular part of the ministry of that church. That class of preachers has been very generally employed to push the work of the Methodist denomination into the sparsely settled frontiers of the country ever since the days of the Rev- olution. So maybe the Methodists led. No judgement is offered here as to which was first on the ground, Presbyterian or Methodist. But it does not make much difference which was first for Methodist and Presbyterian do not quarrel with each other and both have been dilligent in the field of religious work in the old mining town. Certainly Aratus Kent brought a culturnd mind, as well as a fiery spirit of devotion, to his task of founding and expanding the work of his denomination on this advanced frontier. He was a man of great ability and splendid achievement. After his arrival there was always one clear voice ringing along Galena's hillsides assaulting the bondage of the blacks. This led to plenty of controversy. There were many people in the town from Kentucky, Missouri and other Southern states, who resented any attack on the institution of slaveyr, and were emphatic about it. That made no difference to the young preacher from New England, who thundered against human bondage vehemently, constantly, fearlessly, as long as it lasted . And it may be startling to the younger generation to learn that slavery existed in Northern Illinois. Slaves were brought to th e lead mines and the blacks were in bondage here, though it wai clearly against the law. Neither the Presbyterian nor the Methodist pastors 64" gathered adherents for their churches very rapidly. The men who came to the mining region then were intent on material gain rather than spiritual on riches. Many of them were rough and hard. Frontier life did not soften men. No doubt they needed religion but were not seeking it. There was plenty of drinking, cursing brawling and fighting. Blood flowed in many a battle with fists and clubs on the water front and whiskey soaked Main street. At the end of over two years Kent seemed to have won only a half dozen adherents in spite of his hard work and dis- tinguished ability, for that was the number with which he orga- nized the First Presbyterian church in 1831. The Methodists were doing a little better as to numbers but not much. The followers of Wesley had a struggling society formally organ- ized in 1828 or earlier. Captain H. H. Gear gathered a small Sunday school in his home, and each Sabbath read the prayers of the Episcopal church, and that was the beginning of the Grace Episcopal church. In 1834 he was instrumental in bringing Rev. Henry Tullige to Galena, at the first Episcopal rector and a definite organization was affected. There seemed to be no one else to pay the rector's salary so Gear paid it himself the first year after the church was organized. The growth of the churches was slow at first in the mining camp. But the pastors, after the manner of their kind, in the face of all difficulties and in spite of discouragements, persist- ed. The result of their labors has been that the church element came to be and is today the dominant element in this historic center of early pioneer life. Rectors, priests and pastors have not labored in vain. The church structure of the First Presbyterian congrega- tion was built under the leadership of Aratus Ke nt. It is the oldest place of worship standing in the Northwest today, though it looks as though it might have been built a decade ago. Its soft gray stone walls and graceful steeple have lost none of their beauty through the long years, and its interior retains its peculiarly restful atmosphere. While this may be the oldest church structure now stand- ing in all this region, it is not certain that it was the first built in Galena. In the same year it was constructed the Grace Epis- copal congregation^ had it first place of worship. Which came Urst is not Here stated because it seems difficult to determine the matter. The Episcopal church was later burned and the present stone structure of that congregation was built in 1847. 65 The Presbyterian denomination has two other congrega- tions beside the First Church. One, the South Presbyterian, was founded in 1848 and built its place of worship on South Bench street .3 This organization, composed of some of Galena's most substantial people, has been a distinct factor in the city's relig- ious life for over ninety years, and still carries on its work with undiminished vigor. It has a commodious auditorium, a fine pipe organ and the membership is aboutf the same as that of the First Church. The Presbyterian Church on the Hill, is located on the extreme western border of Galena, and ministers to a part of the town considerably removed from the other places of wor- ship. It therefore has a distinct place in the community. On Bench street, a little south of Hill street, stands the First Methodist church, with its parsonage next to it on the North. The building is the third to be occupied by this congre- gation, and was constructed in 1853. Entrance can be had to the auditorium through the basement door at the front, and the visitor can easily find the marked pew used by U. S. Grant and his family as they sat and listened to the Gospel as preached by Reverend John H. Vincent, he who was afterwards a famous Bishop of his denomination, and the founder of the great Chau- tauqua movement, one of the greatest educational plans this country ever saw outside of its regular schools and colleges. It was here this great churchman really started that plan by or- ganizing certain classes in the Gelena church, which were the beginnings of the scheme that helped millions to a wider knowl- edge of literature, science and art. So Galena was the cradle of the Chautauqua movement, among its other glories. During that period there was a German Methodist Episco- pal church up on the hill in Galena which was so vigorous in its day that it took over from the United States Government the Marine hospital, and for a time operated it successfully as a part of its service to the community. That church made an honorable record and passed away when the people belonging to it, to whom the German language was the most natural form of speech passed on, a thing that happened in the case of Ger- man Methodist churches in many other communities. Likewise the African Methodist church passed out of its active years at the number of negroes diminished in Galena. Where Hill street climbing upward from Main hits the hill side at Prospect street, there is an intriguing concrete stair- 66 way, unique and inviting, if one has breath for further climb- ing. But probably one goes no further, for just there at the left is Grace Episcopal church, the most famous of all of Galena's historic places of worship. Its buttressed walls are very thick, and were built of stone quarried when the space for the struc- ture was carved from the hillside which holds its sheltering arms about the ancient fane as if to protect it. Of Gothic architecture, it was designed by Upjohn, the architect of Trinity Episcopal church in New York. Its front door it always open and visitors are welcome at all times. All who enter are impressed at once with the worshipful influence of the interior. Some of its stained glass windows were brought from Belgium. The high window above the altar is especially notable and beautiful. The altar is both artistic and impressive. It is entirely free from any suggestion of the gerrish arid taw- dry. With its dark wood and harmonious carving it dominates the whole interior, and does much to emphasize the churchly atmosphere of the place. On one side of the altar is the lectern, the reading desk, a standard surmounted by an eagle, bearing on ifs back a great Bible printed in Oxford, England, in 1847. The whole lectern is carved from a single block of black walnut. It is a fine speci- men of the wood carver's art. The fact that the artist, Gronner, was a citizen of Galena, speaks eloquently of the artistic spirit and skill of some of those early pioneers. On the opposite side of the altar is a pipe organ, still in use every Sunday in the church services, though it came from the East via New Orleans nearly a hundred years ago, the first pipe organ to come to the Northwest. The ground where this church stands, much of the money which built the edifice, and the pipe organ were given by Captain Hezekiah H. Gear who may justly be called the founder of the church. For many a year his tall figure moved up and down the aisles of this sanc- tuary as its Senior Warden. Many of the great in Galena's colorful history were members of Grace Church congregation, and sat regularly in the pews of this historic place of worship. The three oldest shrines of the Protestant faith in Galena, Grace Episcopal, the First Methodist and the First Presbyter- ian churches, holding their places so long on the rugged hill- side, are religious institutions which had much to do with shap- ing the high ideals, of this historic town, and in determining its strong influence upon the great Northwest. 67 A few yards north of the High School steps on Bench street, is St. Michael's Roman Catholic church, with the largest auditorium in the city. It was planned and built by a priest, Rev. Charles Samuel Mazzuchelli, famous in the early history of his church in all this region. He knew architecture as well as theology, for he designed not only the two Catholic churches and the Old Market House in Galena, but a cathedral in Du- buque and also the school and other buildings at Sinsinnawa Mound, a famous educational center of the Roman church north of Galena a few miles. St. Michael's is called the "Cradle of Catholicity in the Northwest." It was a flourishing parish be- fore the first Catholic church was founded in Chicago. The first priest of the parish was Reverend Vincent Badin, sent up by the Catholic Bishop of St. Louis. St. Michael's has a larger membership and congregation than any other church in Galena. It supports a parochial school, and has a famous Juvenile band which adds much to the musical atmosphere of the community. Because of its large membership and their influence upon the vital affairs of the city, because of its age. having been founded when the community was still young, because of its fine record for usefulness through the long years, St. Michael's stands side by side, historically, with the First Methodist, First Presbyterian and Grace Episcopal churches, and completes a a quartette of religious organizations unmatched elsewhere in the state of Illinois for their antiquity and their molding influ- ence on a wide territory through the years of pioneer develop- ment. For over a century St. Michael's has had a large place in Galena affairs and today carries on with undiminished vigor. The other Roman Catholic church is St. Mary's on Frank- lin street. It was organized in 1850 to serve Germans of the Catholic faith. The church building, designed by Father Mazzu. chelli, was built in 1856. It has a commodious auditorium and a very unusual altar consisting of three very artistic parts com- posed of choice imported marbles. This altar is so unusual that every tourist should see it, for it may be doubted if any other Catholic church in the State, in a city of the size of Galena, has anything as fine. St. Mary's maintains a parochial school and houses its priest in one of the finest homes in the city. In 1857 St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran church was built on High street. There the followers of the great German reformer have, for three generations, held the dignified services of that ancient and steadfast religious faith. 68 GALENA HIGH SCHOOL 69 ^^PTOf^S^ ,.<<.: &**£ i i IP m 1 .'■• \\f 4 Kt: DOWLING ROCK HOUSE- Oldest Structure in Galena JS^useupTDays ■ '• ■■ ■ ■ ■ ' ■ '- ■ ' " ""- ■ '-' ■ - • : L. GALENA HISTORICAL MUSEUM Museum Days The creation of Galena's Community Center, Historical Museum and Art Gallery in 1938, mark that year as a memor- able one in the histo^y>f the city. The Community building is one of the largest and most dignified brick structures in the place. Favorable circumstances, and the financial cooperation of the City Council and public spirited people, put this property into City ownership without debt, though it could not be replaced for less than fifty thousand dollars. It is made up of large rooms. One of them, 40x80 feet, is used constantly for community social activities. Another large room, handsomely furnished, is a lounge, for the free use of the public. The Museum occupies a number of rooms the largest of which is also 40x80 feet. One of the most interesting facts in the minds of the people is that this building is leased to the Museum Association for a hundred years at a dollar a year, without taxes, with the privi- lege of renewing the lease at the end of the Century for another hundred years on the same terms. The creation of the Museum of History and Art has awak- ened the enthusiasm of the people to the preservation of those things which come down from pioneer days, and the stressing of the town's fine historic background. Galena is intensely his- tory conscious, and proposes the memory of the pioneers shall be kept green in an institution where those things characteristic of the domestic and industrial life of the early days shall be housed. Galena is a magnet for tourists. Scores of thousands of them drive every year along Main street. The Museum greatly increases the attractiveness of the place as a tourist objective according to the testimony of the tourist themselves who have seen what we have. In the rooms devoted to pictures are excellent repro- ductions of some of the old masters. There are some old steel engravings and wood cuts and a splendid group of pictures of General Grant and his military staff, ten of the fifteen Major and Brigadier Generals Galena sent out to help the great soldier win victory in the civil war, more officers of high rank 73 than any other city of its size in the country furnished to the Union army. That group glorifies Galena, for those men, her own sons, contributed tremendously to the winning of the war. In the main Museum room, Thomas Nast's historic paint- ing, portraying Lee's surrender to Grant, is the magnet of all eyes. It arrests instant attention with its groups of life size fig- ures in blue and gray, telling the dramatic story of the event which Bancroft, the historian, says was the most significant in American history since the days of the revolution. Grant, unpre- tentious, wearing a simple blouse, with nothing but his shoulder straps to indicate his rank, is backed by a group of military leaders in full regimentals. Lee, the splendid figure of the really great man he was, dressed in full Confederate uniform, flanked by a single Federal General acting as liason officer, has with him only one Confederate officer, clad in southern gray, to wit- ness what to them was a heart-breaking event, but one which was, as it should have been, with two such heroic men as prin- cipals, peculiarly free from any personal bitterness. The huge canvass glows with life, and light, and color.The leaders stand with hands clasped. Every one must admire the mighty Grant with his utter lack of pretense, but one's heart goes out to the South's great soldier taking it without a whimper like the great man he was. The intense drama of the scene grips every one as he sees the breaking of the hopes of the South, but, also the welding of the two sections in a peace and union not known before, and stronger than the grip of the two greatest soldiers since Washington's victories, as they stand there in the picture in an endless handclasp which seems to typify the eternal reunion of the North and the South. Nearby on the Museum walls hang three famous flags. One was the flag of Commodore Perry's flag ship, the Lawrence in tha battle of Lake Erie in the war of 1812. The Lawrence was supposed to be sinking. It had been riddled by British broad- sides. Perry in a small boat which was a fine target for English guns, escaped to the Niagara which he then drove into the British with fury, followed by the rest of his own ships fighting so fiercely that the British quickly surrendered, the first time in history that a whole English fleet was ever captured. They must have heard those Lake Erie guns in London, for the war soon ended in favor of America, the only nation that never lost a war. When Perry left the Lawrence his battle flag went with him in the arms of H. H. Gear, then flag ensign on the Commodore's 74 flag ship. The Captain's life-size portrait, loaned by the Mason- ic lodge of Galena, painted over a hundred years ago, hangs on the north wall of the Museum. He came to Galena in 1827, when there were less than 20 log cabins in the place, and brought the Perry flag with him. In 1860 he formally gave it to the young Americans of Northwest Illinois, with its great story of American heroism, and for 78 years thereafter it was kept in the safe at the post office till brought to the Museum in 1938. Of similar interest is the flag of Company C of the 45th Illinois Infantry, Washburn's "Lead Mine" regiment. It was in the battles fought by that regiment, and was the first to be planted inside the Confederate lines at Vicksburg. H. H. Tay- lor, color bearer, had many a narrow escape as he carried this banner from battle field to battlefield, for the Lead Mine regi- ment from Galena was a righting regiment, and saw the hardest service. Born by shot and shell, it finally passed to General John E. Smith whose grandson, W. K. K. Smith brought it to the Museum where it tells its story of Galena bravery, when the fighting soul of old Galena went to war. The Museum's trio of great flags includes one made by the women of Galena for the first company going to the front from the town at the beginning of the Civil war, which has high his- toric value to the community. Such relics gather value with the passing years. Mrs. Alto Saxby of Freeport, who is very much interested in the Museum, has loaned it a collection of antiques, consisting of furniture and dishes, many of which are of unestimable value. This collection is being constantly added to by Mrs. Saxby until now it is one of the largest and finest to be found in any museum or even in any antique shop. In 1833 Cole Wight brought the first piano to the North- west by way of New Orleans. It passed to Mrs. M. Y. John- son and from her to Mrs. J. W. Crawford who gave it to the Museum. When it reached Galena Lieutenant Jefferson Davis was at Prairie DuChien where General Zachary Taylor, later President of the United States, was Commandant. Davis want- ed to dance to the music of that piano, so down he came with a gay party. In that party was Taylor's daughter, and possibly on that trip was born the romance which resulted in Davis and Miss Taylor eloping a little later and getting married in a famous runaway match. If the keys of that old piano wei e not 75 so silent with age they might tell of other romances which kept step with the music of its strings in the days that are no more. Reference is made here to some of the treasures of the Museum to show that we really have things worth seeing. There are too many to be catalogued here. There are curious old farm implements that would discourage the farmer of today if he had to use them, but the best the pioneers could think of as they sought to plant and harvest their crops; old guns with which the frontiersman added game to the family larder, or defended hit home from the skulking red-skins ; primitive methods for sup- plementing the light from the blazing hearth of the log cabin; fabrics woven by fingers that have been dead for a hundred years; pictures of pioneers who laid here the foundations of a lasting civilization; many things of interest growing in number from month to month. The rear part of the Museum property is a steep hillside, climbing about 150 feet up to high Prospect street. This sharp slope is broken into half dozen broad terraces, each supported by a rugged stone wall. These are the finest terraces in Galena. People who visit the Museum can walk out on a bridge now reaching from the second story of our building to the second terrace. New steps in several flights lead from terrace up to ter- race. We believe tourists will say this terraced hillside is one of the most interesting sights in Galena, an intriguing picture for those living in a flatter country. It is doubtful if this unique group of terraces can be duplicated in the whole Mississippi Valley. They are intensely characteristic of the old hillside town. The terraces themselves are broad and flowers and shrubs are being planted on them and they will be developed into places of beauty. On one terrace will be built an exact replica, in size and close detail, of the Kentucky log cabin in which Abraham Lin- coln was born. Museums live. Each year adds to their historic and cultural value. They preserve and pass on to succeeding generations an accurate record of human progress. 76 Historical and Personal A hundred years or so from now some one may want to know who created the Galena Museum. For the sake of the rec- ord, therefore, credit should be given here to those who were most active and helpful in its beginnings. In 1938 the City Council, led by Mayor I. L. Gamber acquir- ed the Community Center property for the City of Galena, and to rendered an initial service without which there would have been no Museum. By leasing the property to the Museum As- sociation for a hundred years at a dollar a year, with the priv- ilege of renewing the lease for another century the City Fathers •et wide the door for the creation of a great civic institution. The next step in the program was to repair the building and alter it for the uses of a Museum. The money for this was provided by persistent personal appeal to public spirited citizens who contributed several thousand dollars for the purpose. After that job was done the people smiled and seemed glad they had put their hands in their pockets and footed the bills. Among these public spirited citizens who contributed time and money to the Museum movement James B. Sheean was easily first and foremost. Nothing gets done without a doer and he led the way in doing. Dr. Ray E. Logan, active in civic affairs, and then president of the Lion's club, was closely identified with the enterprise from its inception. Mrs. William Weber, one of the directors, and head of the house committee, and Miss Minnie Whitham, director and sec- retary of the Museum Association, were tireless, efficient and absolutely indispensable in carrying this project forward to its present satisfactory point of development. Miss Anna Felt, whose father founded the city library, ren- dered very valuable aid, and Miss Emma S. Robb seconded her helpful service. Mrs. Harry L. Heer, vice president, and Mrs. Frank Sheean, director, of the Association, were generous givers of money and time. Mrs. Ed Asmus, of the D. A. R.'s, and Mrs. R. R. Edwards, of the Fortnightly club, have proved willing helpers. 77 A. J. Hirst, treasurer, and J. W. Weitwick, director, aided substantially in various ways. The writer hereof first suggested the Museum project to Galena people and has been constantly active in promoting its development, mention of which is made here at the insistence of others, who have sometimes called him the founder. Two civic clubs, the Commercial and the Lions, backed the movement as organizations and the members of them were par- ticularly enthusiastic in their support at all times. The Galena Gazette and the Advertiser, the local news- papers of Galena, were more than generous with space in their columns for helpful publicity. So many citizens gave money and generous aid in other ways, that full personal mention here becomes impossible. The creation of this Museum was the result of team work, a fine illustration of what a community can do when the people all pull together. Likewise, it is not possible to list here the names of all generous persons who have contributed things of historic in- terest to the exhibits which now begin to fill the rooms of the Museum. The late Frank Gronner, of Galena, was a collector of antiques for years and a good friend of the Museum which now has his interesting collection, through the generosity of his wife and children. From Mrs. John G. Jackson and her grand-daughters of Scales Mound came a very valuable collection of minerals made by Mr. Jackson, who was a real miner in the far west. Mined in Colorado and California. But mention must be made of the largest collection com- ing to the Museum. It was loaned by Mrs. Mary Kelley of Berwyn, (Chicago) 111. It was carefully gathered up years ago by her husband and Captain Harry Hicks, partner of Buffalo Bill (W. F. Cody) in the show business. There are hundreds of items, including 75 guns representing the sort of weapons uied in every war in which this country has engaged, as well as rifles carried by early pioneers, Indian fighters and the Indians them- selves. Indian bead work and relics; part of Sitting Bull's scalp; a maul used by Lincoln in splitting rails; things belonging to Daniel Boone, David Crockett, and other famous Indian fight- ers, too many to be catalogued here. There are many antiquities in this collection which could not now be duplicated, and those who gathered them were 78 rcareful to have them well authenticated. The Museum is unde great obligations to Mrs. Kelley. The story of Galena's Historical Museum could not be complete without tome reference to the institution's indebted- ness to the Odd Fellows. The tale is one of community service in spite of tragic loss. The local lodge acquired its home, a fine brick mansion of dignity built over a hundred years ago, and long the home of wealth and social prestige. Eager for the glory of their useful order, they greatly enlarged their building, spending forty thousand dollars in money, and using a lot of free labor by members who loved their lodge. Then came the tragedy of foreclosure and loss of the property. After a few years the wheel of circumstance took an- other turn. A new kind of dream came barging into the town from somewhere. A Museum was the chief substance of that dream, and the Odd Fellows Building, reborn as the Museum and Civic Center, found itself serving a wider use than ever. The community owes much to the Odd Fellows who in- tended to build a home for themselves but really built for all their neighbors too. There may be, and the community hopes there will be in this final outcome, compensation to the mem- bers of the fine old order, the I. O. O. F., the fundamental pre- cept of which is to help the other fellow. They did not lose their building but still have it for use in a different way, Galena has a Museum because the Odd Fellows were a bit venturesome, but in fact finally mighty helpful to their town. Mr. Rex Moody, superintendent of the Grant Memorial Home, is among those who have greatly helped us. He has told many a tourist about the Historical Museum and we are grate- ful for that kindly service. His position insures his seeing more strangers than any other man in town, for while Galena has many shrines calling loudly to those who would find their way to places where the pioneers lived their heroic lives, chief among them all in this old town must always be the modest cottage which sheltered Grant in the days of his obscurity, but more especially the Memorial Home where the mighty man honored the town by living for a time when he was his country's greatest citizen. To go there will be to learn that the really great sometimes live simply and without pretense. 79 An Artists Town The head of one of Chicago's greatest art institutions once said to the writer: "You know I am a painter. I expect to be out in Galena next Spring again to paint some pictures." That is the attitude of artists all over northern Illinois. They turn their faces toward Galena with keen delight because they know here they will see something at every turn they would like to reproduce in colors. All summer long easel and palette are in evidence along Galena's streets and hillsides as men and women, with brushes, oils and water colors, seek to portray the quaintness of old buildings, the mellow shades and tones of long built stone walls, the time ripened colors of ancient brick, the curving streets, the terraced hillsides. In every corner of Jo Daviess County nature spreads out pictures that delight the souls of scenic artists. They do not need to hunt for scenes worth putting on their canvasses. Such views are everywhere among the hills and vales. If tourists find joy in the picturesque phases of glamorous Galena, they can be sure artists go beyond them in enthusiasm for what is to be seen in the quaint town on the banks of shrunken old Fevre river. From many places come lovers of the beautiful to make pictures and revel in the things artists love. They come from towns and vil- lages, but more of them from Chicago than elsewhere. An art colony has been suggested for Galena, such as can be found in some other places about the country. It is only a matter of time,!perhaps, till one of the stately old mansions, say on Prospect street, looking out so widely over the river valley, will find itself transformed into an institution, a sort of club- house, where artists will foregather with delight to talk the traditions and modernities of their fascinating profession in a congenial atmosphere. Through the years it would be a place where many a man and woman of genius would be helped to do better work. And let it not be forgotten that they are doing a lot for humanity. Beauty has an immeasurable influence on character. Fine pictures uplift and inspire men far more than men themselves ever realize. Therefore he who creates or causes good pictures to be painted helps build men into better living. But the Art Colony is only half the dream for artists who come to Galena, and for us who are interested in their work. 8Q The other half of our dream would be an addition to our Mu- seum plant. I venture here the reason for this addition and the purpose of it. There are many artists in what might be called Galena- land, that territory extending a hundred miles or more in every direction from this community which a century and a quarter ago, was the focus of trade, finance and industry for this whole region. Some of these artists have wide recognition, such Out- standing creators of beauty, for instance, as Mrs. Frank Furst, of Freeport, whose glowing canvasses warm the very soul of you. Her brush can depict a face that lives, a face through which a soul speaks to you. Have you ever seen her painting of an old Swedish woman busy making a crazy patch-work quilt? The old toiler's hand and needle are poised at the point fartherest from the stitch she has just taken in the quilt lying there in her lap. She hears you coming and with hand still poised, lifts her kindly eyes. In those eyes you see honesty, integrity, the devotion of a tincere worker to the simple needs of a humble home, and maybe a bit of wonder as to what you may think of her homely industry. The picture grips you, holds you, hangs itself on the walls of your memory. Many fine canvasses like that are scattered over this part of the world, produced in this region, not quite as fine as that piece of color, perhaps, but each with its message of beauty, each with a story all its own. Suppose a lot of these were gath- ered into a gallery in Galena, a part of our institution, where tens of thousands of tourists come every year. These pictures would be seen with joy by many lovers of the beautiful. Their cultural value would be multiplied very greatly. They were painted to be seen. They would thus find a very large audience with whatever stories the artists have recorded with their brushes. It is reasonable to suppose many artists would be glad to see their work in such a place, in the logical art center of this region, logical because of its own historic importance, and be- cause here, more than any other place in the region, streams of people come for so many months in the year, people whose sole purpose at the moment is to find and see the interesting and beautiful. So it is proper to say here that one of the present object- ives of some of the friends of the Museum is to build the first room of a one story stone, fire-proof addition to the Museum, 81 with ample sky-light, the best for showing the pictures which, slowly perhaps, but surely, would come to adorn its walls. When one room overflowed another could be built. The ad- ministration cost is provided for as it would be part of the Museum plant. It would be a place for contemporary art and artists/our neighbors north, south, east and west, our own folks whose work is fine and beautiful. Every once in a while some generous soul, seeing a worthwhile picture by a near-by artist, would buy it and hang it on the walls of this gallery. Many an artist might put a dash of fine color from his own palette in a place like that, where thousands of eyes would look upon it every year with delight at the artist's skill. Galena gave Herman Kohlsaat to Chicago, and he, in turn, gave much to Galena in the artistic line. It is fair to hope there will be other native sons to do the same thing. Kohlsaat com- missioned Thomas Nast to paint the great canvas "Peace and Union," the famous picture of Lee's surrender to Grant, then he gave the picture to Galena and it now hangs in the Museum. He also gave to Galena the statue of Grant which stands in Grant Park. No wonder Galena honors the memory of Kohl- saat and believes he deserves the conspicious success he achiev- ed in metropolitan fields of competitive endeavor. POINT'S OF INTEREST 1 — 'Public Library Dl 212 — St. Mary's Church . . .A2 2' — South Presbyterian 2i3 — St. Joseph's Halle ... .A3 Church Dl M — Court House A3 3 — 'Grain Houses Dl 25 — John Do wling House. .9 — Old Cemetery Bl 43 — Grant Memorial House. D 4- 20 — 'Rawlins Home Al m. Central R. R. Sta. .D2 21 — Rowley Home Al 82 Itinerary An itinerary is here set down which will lead in a conven- ient way from one point of interest to another. Start where Bench street runs north from U. S. Highway 20, one block west of the Highway bridge over the Galena river. On the wall of the Jackson home, first two story house on the left, until 1937, hung one of the few original copies of the Declaration of Independence. It was stolen that year and has not yet been recovered. It had, as an antique, a monetary value of not less than $25,000.00. The next house to it is the parsonage of the South Presbyterian church. Across the street to the north is the home of Dr. P. H. Kittoe, son of Colonel Kittoe who was on Grant's military staff. This home was the long time home of James B. Young, a successful forty-niner. Farther along on the left is the Public Library given to the city by Andrew Carnegie and B. F. Felt. It was built in 1908, is a better library than is usually found in cities the size of Galena, and owes much of its devopment and usefulness to the skillful oversight of Miss Anna Felt whose father, by his liberality, made the institution possible. Across the street a broad flight of steps comes up from Main street. From the stairway one gets a view of shrunken Galena river with enough water to float speed and small pleasure boats but not the dozen steamboats which often tied up at the dock in a singl e day during Galena's commercial supremacy. The first house beyond the library is the home of the LeBrons. Leo, the pres- ent head of the family, is the great great grandson of the treasurer of France under Napoleon Bonaparte. Across the street from the LeBron home are four old grain warehouses though they do not look the part today. They front on Main street but their third stories are entered from Bench street. In the old days a string of loaded grain wagons some. times would reach a half dozen blocks northward waiting to enter the third floor of these warehouses, where they would unload and drop their grain to the ground floor. It was there sacked and then taken across Main street to the waiting barges and steamboats. From the wharf it found its way to the big flour mills at Minneapolis and back as flour for the wide trade territory of Galena. Then on the left comes the South Presby- terian church, an influential congregation of Galena's best people. 84 Farther along are Feehan Hall and Annunciation Paro- chial School, under the control of St. Michael's Catholic church. On the same side of the street a block farther north is a quaint old frame church backed up against the hillside. It has a peculiar tower and generally antiquated appearance. It was built long ago as the Second Presbyterian church by a group swarming out of the First church probably because Aratus Kent, pastor of the First church, thundered too often and too savagely against slavery, to suit the comeouters. On the north side of this old church are the High School Steps coming up from Main street on the right, and climbing on up to lofty Prospect street on the left. Next to where the steps start climbing from Bench street is a large, square, substantial brick house built by that early pioneer, Dr. Newhall. Later and for years it was the residence of David Sheean, an outstanding lawyer, and is now the home of his nephew, James B. Sheean. Next on the left is the Nun's Home, next the Priest's Home, and then St. Michael's Catholic church. The doors of the church swing open on Sunday morning to a thousand peo- ple. It is a great church and is called "The Cradle of Catholic, ity in the Northwest," for it was a thriving parish before a single Catholic church was founded in Chicago. Across the street are hillside houses whose front doors are reached by bridges which are among the queer things to be seen in Galena. Next to St. Michael's church is the Historical Museum. The front part of this building is one of the old mansions of the town, built over a hundred years ago, as sound and good today as when it was erected. A few years ago the main part of the Museum structure was added in the rear of the old mansion at a cost of forty thousand dollars. The Museum is more fully described elsewhere in this book. Back of the Museum are the most massive terraces in the city. Half a block farther along is the First Methodist Church built in 1853, the third structure to house this, the oldest church congregation in Galena. This was Grant's church and the Grant family pew is marked. Entrance can be had through the front basement door. Note the quaint little old Fire Engine House to the south of the church, no longer big enough to house Galena's fire fighting equipment. 85 In the same block farther along is Turner Hall, built in the old Turn Verein days, when Germans formed so many athletic clubs over the country. This structure, with its thick stone walls, looks as though it had been built for the centuries. It is now used as a place for larger public assemblies and be- longs to the city. Next is Galena's fine new fire engine house headquarters for our excellent fire department. Then comes Hill street, and in the middle of the next block the First Presbyterian churchy built in 1838, oldest church structure in the Northwest. With its soft gray stone walls and graceful steeple it is beautiful in simplicity and fine dignity. It was erected in the days of Aratus Kent, graduate of Princeton, Galena's first resident pastor, one of the founders of Rockford and Beloit colleges. The second house beyond the First Presbyterian church, a white pillar & Colonial home,vr&s built in 1847 by JohnDowl- ing, one of the real pioneers. It was made the scene~oTmuch of the action in Mrs. Fairbanks novel, "The Brightlands." Across the street is an oddly shaped house. It incorporates within its walls part of the Amos Farrar Log Cabin which was inside of the old stockade and sheltered the women and children during the Black Hawk war scare. Farrar was an Indian agent and trader, and married Miss Sophia Gear, who was the first woman school teacher in Galena. Next north is a house which has all the air of one of the great mansions of the deep South. Its four huge pillars, back of which is an ornate iron balcony, are certainly reminiscent of Dixie. Returning a half block, and going up Hill street one comes to famous old Grace Episcopal chureh, thick walled, built of native stone, and of Tudor architecture. It was designed by the architect of Trinity church in New York and originally had a spire now replaced by a Norman Tower. Its stained glass win- dows were brought from Belgium, its hundred year old pipe organ from the east via New Orleans, and it has a beautifully artistic altar. Going south on Prospect street one comes to a little brick cottage on the left, clinging to the lip of the Valley to keep from sliding down the hillside. It was once the Methodist Par- sonage, a "vest pocket" parsonage Bishop Vincent used to call it when he lived there as the local Methodist pastor. Opposite, on the right, are a half dozen spacious homes of the old Galena aristocracy, houses of notable character. 86. The finest view in Galena is to be had along Prospect at this point. The whole river valley is spread out like a great panorama, stretching north and south at one's feet, the busi- ness section of the town, the shrunken river, Horse Shoe Mound on the east bluff, Pilot Knob, famous Indian lookout thrusting its top above the hills to the southwest, the white ribbon of Highway 20 mounting the opposite hillside, with the Grant Memorial Home, the property of the state, just north of the Highway as it reaches the crest of the opposite hilltop, and be- yond that St. Michael's cemetery, a Catholic burial ground, with a glimpse of the old Marine Hospital off to the right. At the foot of the hill on the east side of the river, in plain view from Prospect street, is Grant Park with its fine statue of the illustrious soldier. Further along is the High School. Returning from the school building and keeping on north past Grace Episcopal church one climbs a block and comes to another high point on Prospect, marked by a monument placed by the Priscilla Mullins chapter of the D. A. R. to indicate the site of the Old Fort. Here there was a block house occupied by soldiers during the Black Hawk war. A concealed passage way led down into the stockade at the foot of the hill. Going westward one block on Elk street one comes to High street. Turning down High street in the second block, on the right, is found the original Grant Home, the two story brick house in which the family lived after reaching Galena a year before the war. In that simple and unpretentious home the family remained while the General was away during the war. Back of this early Grant home is the old Hill Top cemetery given to the city by Captain H. H. Gear, whose monument is there. Many of the early pioneers were buried in this high spot. The remains of some of them have been moved to the more modern cemetery, Greenwood, a mile southwest of the city, but there are many unmarked and undisturbed graves in this burial ground now no longer used for interments. Many of the head- stones, weathered by the storms of a hundred years, have been broken down and carried away, but the dead still sleep there in peace. The birds sing to them in the morning, and the insect orchestra lulls them to deeper slumber in the evening. The grass grows green and wild flowers blossom in the sun and rain above the silent tenants of this quiet Hill Top spot, forgotten by man, but maybe remembered by the God who some time will wake the dead. 87 At 517 Hill Street is the little house in which before the war lived John A. Rawlins, Grant's greatest friend and coun- sellor and beside that is another modest cottage, 515 Hill street in which lived Wm. R. Rowley , before he became an efficient member of Grant's military staff. Returning to Elk street one winds down to Franklin street where stands St. Mary's Catholic churchy with a modern rec- tory beside it, the church itself dating back to 1856. One who enters it sees a triple altar of imported marbles, a very elabor- ate and unusual display of artistic skill. Across the street St. Joseph's Halle, an ancient German meeting house. Going southeast along Franklin street past a long block of interesting old houses on either side, one gets back to Bench street with the Court House not far to the left and north. Cutting southwest from the intersection of Franklin and Bench, Diagonal street runs down to Main street, past the John Bowling rook house, oldest structure in Galena. Across the street is a stone structure, now used by John P. Vincent and Son in their extensive monument business. This building was the first Court House. In it Joseph Jefferson, famous actor, played juvenile parts with his father and mother who acted the principal roles in theatrical productions while the family spent a winter in the mining town. The younger Jef- ferson got part of his schooling in Galena. At the corner of Main and Hill streets is the Siniger and Siniger Drug Store, established in 1834, where drugs have been sold ever since that date. At 120 Main, now a jewelery store, was the Grant leather store where U. S. Grant was a fifty dollar a month clerk and glad to get the job at that, for it gave his family bread, some- thing they had not always had in great abundance. Back of this, facing on Commerce street, is a little brick two story building used as a place for handling hides. Along there on Commerce street is the Old Market House and Market Square, where anything and everything was sold to people from homes of the rich and the poor, with a sprink- ling of beaded and moccasined Indians scattered among the trafficking crowds. It is said there was once a Slave Block there as an auction place for the selling of negroes. Farther along on Main street is the Gazette Office, a paper unique in the history of Illinois journalism for having a com- plete file of bound copies of its weekly paper from the date of 88 its origin, 1834, down to the present time and daily papers from 1848, the date of its birth down to the present. In the same block with the Gazette is the DeSoto Hotel, built in 1854. It was the scene of much of the town's social life in the old days, and had more nationally known names on its register than had any other public hostelry in any other town in the midwest of the size of Galena. When a candidate for the presidency Grant kept a room as his headquarters. We might go a block farther south on Main street to the Masonic Temple. Across the street from that is the Lead Mine Ciifar Factory, oldest cigar factory in the whole northwest. We might go a block east to Commerce street again, to the modern Post Office on one side of the street, and the Old Post Office structure on the opposite corner, built in 1840.* We might cross the river bridge and make our way to 3rd street and Highway 20, where stands, on the northeast corner of these two thorofares, one of the finest old mansions in the town, on the lawn of which Grant drilled the first company of Jo Daviess County recruits for the Union army in 1861. This stately house was then the residence of E. B. Washburne, and is now the home of Mrs. Frank T. Sheean, whose late husband carried forward the best legal traditions of the community dur- ing his active and useful life. We might climb the hill to the Grant Memorial Home, whose doors swing open every year to scores of thousands of tourists and would be impressed by the simplicity of the do- mestic life of an ex-President who had not allowed the praise of a nation and the plaudits of an admiring world to disturb his common sense. In the Memorial home we would be courteously greeted by Mr. Rex Moody, there in the service of the State to receive those who come to pay tribute to Galena's great soldier. But we have stopped at the DeSoto Hotel, a good place to stay, so we will go no further, but settle down here. If Mr. Clauer, the proprietor, is not on hand to welcome us, his genial son Jack may be and will courteously show us about the house. We are certain of warm welcome and a pleasant stay. Let's sit down and talk over our trip about this historic old town. 89 Nearby Neighbors Hazel Green, Wis., is ten miles from Galena. In the old days it was called "Hardscrabble." At one time a plank road ran from Galena to this town in the Southern edge of Wiscon- sin, where now there is a concrete highway. There were many mines and miners in the Hazel Green region in the mining days. A visit to Apple River Canyon will discover the scenic beauty of that highly picturesque neighborhood. The Canyon is in the northeast corner of Jo Daviess County, and is included in a State Park, where lime-stone cliffs have been carved and eroded by Apple River to produce a region in sharp contrast with ordinary Illinois scenery- The Canyon can be reached by driving from the junction of U. S. Highways 20 and 78 six miles north, and then three miles and a half west. Sinsinawa Mound is five miles west of Hazel Green. It can also be reached by Route 79 from East Dubuque. It is an old ed- ucational center of the Catholic church, with a long established Girls' Academy. The Mother Home of the Sisters of St. Domin- ic for the United States, is located there. A hundred years ago Father Mazzuchelli was the village priest there, and the Catho- lic church regards the place as an important feature of its his- toric background in the Northwest. Dickey ville, Wis., has a Catholic Grotto which can be reached by driving north from East Dubuque. Shullsburg, Benton, Platteville, and Mew Diggings, just across the line in Wisconsin, were other busy and productive mining centers in the old days. Each has its story to tell of pioneer days. East Dubuque, 16 miles north of Galena, Warren, Stock- ton, Elizabeth, Hanover, are all prosperous towns of Jo Daviess County. Cn every side of them are scenic beauties that will charm and delight the tourist. At Hanover lives Thomas Shipton who with scientific skill and care has built up a very fine geological collection characteristic of this part of Illinois, and has supplemented this with Indian and other historic relics. Scales Mound, 12 miles east of Galena, is on what was once known as the Chicago -Dubuque Trail. Over that trail stormed the old stages and Scales Mound was one of the places where passengers could draw a long breath in their hectic ride across the state. Nearby is Charles Mound , highest point in Illinois. 90 When Things Happened 1778 — George Rogers Clark whipped the English at Vincennes, thereby seized the Northwest Territory, then called Illi- nois, and attached it, insofar as he could, to Virginia. 1809 — Illinois Territory organized comprising present Illinois, Wisconsin and peninsular Michigan, with Kaskaskia as Territorial Capital. 1811 — Indians in northwest Illinois and southwest Wisconsin reported to be as much interested in lead mining. 1816 — First boat load of lead shipped down the river to St. ^^_^ Louis by Colonel Davenport. ( 181&H Illinois, with its present boundaries, admitted into the Union. First house on the site of Galena built by John and Tyler Armstrong, brothers. 1819 — Armstrong Brothers deserted their cabin and Francisco Bouthillier moved in with his Indian wife. John W. Shull, Samuel Muir and A. P. Van Meter arrived, married In- dian women, and built log cabins. ( 1820YSettlement was called "The Point" and "FevreRiyer." ^ ' Dr. Samuel Muir was settled for medical practice. 1821 — Thomas January, wife and son, the first white family, arrived from Maysville, Kentucky, and built a log house. Mining leases issued from the land office at Vandalia. James E. Soulard, long a citizen of Galena, ascended the Mississippi river from St. Louis to Fort Snelling. 1822 — From Kentucky came Suggett, Carneil, Payne, and ^^*% James Johnson whose brother killed Tecumseh. ^1823 — James Harris, brother of a former Governor of Con- necticut, and Dr. Moses Meeker, came in from the east. ( The first steamboat to tie up at the Galena wharf, the "~/^ Virginia, steamed up the Galena river, Fevre river then. 1824 — James Smith Hunt arrived by birth October 8th, the first white child to be born in the new settlement. 1825 — First store building was erected by Frederick Dent, sub. sequently father-in-law of General Grant. — ^ Dr. Moses Meeker started the first farm in the county. ( 1826 — Town was named "Galena" because the mines were pro- ducing sulphide of lead which was known as galena. Total population 150. The Government established a post office. James Jones started first newspaper, Miners Journal. 91 Henry Gratiot arrived. Dr. John Hancock opened the first school. John Turney, Galena's first lawyer, came in. Horatio Newhall, doctor and druggist, arrived. An Episcopal clergyman, a chaplain of the Hudson Bay company, storm stayed, held what some say was the first public religious service in the new town, while others claim Reeves Carmack, a Methodist local preacher held services earlier than that. 1827 — Jo Daviess County organized. H. H. Gear arrived from Massachusetts via Alton, Illi- nois. With him came Henry Dodge, later Territorial Governor ot Wisconsin and United States Senator. Charles S. Hempstead arrived. 1828-tJohn)Dowling Rock House, oldest structure now in the town, was built. John Dew, first Methodist pastor appointed to Galena. 1829 — Galena Advertiser and Upper Mississippi Herald established. Weekly mail service from Vandalia started. Rev. Aratus Kent came in from the East. 1830 — Galenian started by Thomas Ford who later became Governor of the State. 1831 — First Presbyterian church organized by Rev. Aratus ,—> Kent. 1832^r-01d block house and stockade built as Black Hawk war **" started. First cholera scourge swept the community. 1833 — Methodists built a church. The first regular church build- ing in Northern Illinois. 1834 — Galena Gazette established, remarkable for having kept from the beginning bound volumes of its publication. 1835 — Branch of State Bank of Illinois established. Library Association organized. Corner stone of St. Michael's church laid , Rey^ Charles Samuel Mazzuchell i ~p as * nr " S^ First stage coach ran from Galena to Chicago. Grace Episcopal church organized. 1836 — Colonel Henry Gratiot on a trip East died in Baltimore. 1837 — Constable, first paid city officer allowed $150.00 a year. 1838 — City charter submitted to legislature at Vandalia. First Pre sbyterian church built. ' FirsTchurch building for Grace Episcopal was built, i 92 Joseph Jefferson with his father and mother and several other actors spent winter playing to Galena audiences. Temperance Society organized. Introduction of Public school system considered at a meeting with John Turney presiding. First Court House located in Dowling stone store. 1840 — Mail stage started making run through to Chicago in one day, passenger fare one way $13.00. E. B. Washburne arrived from Maine. New post office erected. /l84p— Census showed population 2225. Charles H. Hempstead was Mayor. Bond issue of $73,396.00 to cover City indebtedness. 1842/— African Methodist Episcopal church was erected. v — f C. C. Washburne, brother of E. B., arrived, was later \ great flour manufacturer and Governor of Wisconsin. N^, Two toll bridges built across Galena river. 1843 — Parochial school opened by St. Michael's church. 1844 — Record made that river at this time was 400 feet wide and fifteen feet deep. ( lB45r -Qld Market House built. Rev. Charles Samuel Mazzu- ^ ^-^ chelli, architect. Galena during year shipped 54,494,850 lbs. of lead. 1 846— German M ethodist Episcopal chu rch hnilt. 1847 — Present Grace Episcopal church building st arted, finish- ed in 1850. 1 848 — South Presbyterian andSt. Mary's churches built. Miners stampeded to California by gold discovery. 1849 — Gas Company organized. 1850 — J. J. Hill, builder of the Great Northern Railroad, was a young clerk at the Galena wharf. 1853 — Bank of Galena organized. PresentjVlethodist church p lace^ of jKo rship erected. — ^ GaTenTdid $6,280,67 1 .00 business. C 1854r- DeSoto Hotcj ^begun in 1852 f was finished. — "\ Millard Filmore and George Bancroft were in Galena. ^-=*^^ Legislature changed name of river to "Galena River." f 1855y~Galena branch of Illinois Central Railroad completed " from Freeport to Galena finishing line to Chicago. 1856 — Both Lincoln and Douglas spoke in Galena. Street lighting adopted. 93 1857 — Alexander Jackson built house now known as Grant Memorial home. St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran church was built. • A U. S. Marine Hospital built, Dr. Newhall in charge. Present Post Office building built under direction of Ely __ S. Parker, Indian civil engineer. HJ5o^-The population of greater Galena rose to 14,000. 1860 — U. S. Grant arrived to become a clerk in his father's leather store. 1861 — Several companies of volunteers organized in Jo Daviess county. Grant made Colonel of a regiment at Springfield. 1862 — Grant won battles of Ft. Henry, Ft. Donaldson, Shiloah, Corinth and other places and pushed on to Vicksburg. 1863 — Grant, backed by a staff of Galena advisers, soon went to the top as Commander of all the Federal forces. 1864 — Lead Mine Cigar, Galena's oldest factory, established. 1865 — Merchants National Bank founded. Grant, home from the war, received a great welcome, and the Memorial Home was given to him. 1868 — Grant elected President of the United States. 1869 — General John A. Rawlins, Secretary of War, Grant's _^_ great military adviser and friend, died. 1870^-Mining of lead rapidly declined. T873 — German Methodists took over the Marine hospital. 1874— Turner Hall built. 1877 — Grant left Galena for trip around the world. 1879 — Grant, here from world tour given great ovation. 1880 — Grant removed with his family to New York. 1885 — Grant died and was buried in New York. 1889 — Government did first dredging of the river. 1891 — Grant Monument dedicated by Chauncey Depew. 1898 — President McKinley and members of his cabinet paid Galena a visit. 1900 — Theodore Roosevelt spoke in Turner Hall. Grant's children gave the Memorial Grant hdtne to the city of Galena and in 1932 it passed to the state. 1938 — Galena Museum of History and Art founded, and Civic Center opened. 1939 — City of Galena acquired title to Turner Hall by a gift from Midwest Lumber company. 94 The Seven Hills of Galena SHOT TOWER POVERTY BUCK SEMINARY QUALITY GEAR HANGMAN'S On the last named hill was hanged on January 20, 1856, the only man ever executed in Jo Dariess County. 5000 spectators witnessed the execution. Mounds of Galena PILOT KNOB HORSESHOE BAILEY'S WHITMORE'S rtd„ 3«- from Ott|j*rij| Ma^ |S3l<* 95 l)*> it *< vt \ J H o v- V (a) To ^eorii^ Galena Historical Museum The admission fee has been placed at only Ten Gents for Adults and nothing for children under sixteen. The Museum is dependent on the small fee for the money with which to meet its overhead expenses as it has no endowment It is hoped visitors will help by passing on some good word about it to their friends, and all are invited to send in as a gift or a loan, some historic relic to be ex- hibited under the name of the one who sends it in. UNIVERSITY OF ILUNOIS-URBANA