In the chasms of history there lies a beautiful dream for Carlinville which
might have come true if the intentions of a dreamer a century ago had been
carried out. The dream hovered over Carlinville for forty years and then
The dream was revealed in a will probated in 1871 at the time our million dollar
Macoupin County Courthouse was an infant.
The dream was a "distinguished
law school" slated for the county seat of Macoupin County. The law school was to
be named "Harris Law School" to honor and perpetuate the family name of Harris.
The testator of the will, A.J. Harris, desired to establish a law school at
his home in Carlinville by having his property invested in a manner at 10
percent per annum and yearly interest be invested until he needed money was
raised to operate the school.
The Harris name in Macoupin County dates
back to 1826 when John A. Harris, a man "honorably" connected with the history
and development of the county and the state of Illinois, settled on lake Fork,
an affluent area of Macoupin Creed in Nilwood Township. (Macoupin County derived
its name from the creek which traverses it). Harris was the first settler as a
landowner in Nilwood Township, according to history.
John A. Harris held
many offices of trust and profit. "He rode gallantly at the head of a company in
the Black Hawk War, and was a brigadier-general of militia. He was the first
sheriff of Macoupin County, having been appointed in 1829 when the county was
created and served until 1834. His name was given to Harris Point, timbered
ground located in the northeast part of Nilwood Township.
Harris was
looked upon as "being a man endowed with more common sense, and possessing
better education than the majority of the people." He was one of the
commissioners appointed for the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice
of Macoupin County. He continued as benefactor to the county, his name being
indelibly fixed in its records. When there was a need for leadership, Harris was
one of the first to rise to the occasion.
In the spring of 1832, there
were startled rumors that the Indians north and west of the community were
threatening to raid into the southern counties of the state. As the Indians had
formerly roamed and hunted over the prairies of Macoupin County and had dug and
melted lead on the Macoupin, John A. Harris organized the first company to
respond to the stirring appeal of the Governor. Many of the best and prominent
men of the county enlisted to protect the frontier and preserve the honor of the
state and did signal service in the memorable events of the Black Hawk War.
Captain Harris returned a brigadier-general of militia.
The first birth
in Nilwood Township, according to history, was James Harris, a son of General
Harris, who, at the age of 12 was accidentally drowned.
The first death
was John L. Harris, a nephew of General Harris. He was accidentally killed while
assisting in the raising of a log-house. While a log was being raised to the
second story it became unmanageable, and in falling, would have killed two men,
who were standing immediately under it, had not young Harris caught it and
sacrificed his own life. He was one of the Samuel Harris family numbering 26
children.
General Harris was the father of three other children, Mary,
Andrew Jacks and Adaline. He owned, and for many years operated a water mill on
the former Sunny Home Stock Farm, 1 ½ miles east of Carlinville. Up until he
time he built the greatly needed mill in 1830, grain was being pounded into meal
in Indian mortars.
Macoupin County is a portion known in an early day as
the "Black Hawk Hunting-ground." Excerpts from history record that a private,
John Reynolds, afterwards governor of the state, told the following story: In
September of 1812, 'we left Camp Russell' (near Edwardsville in Madison County,
'marched up the northwest side of Cahokia Creek, nearly to it source, thence
across the prairie to Macoupin Creek, not far above the present Carlinville, and
at the Lake fork we stopped to noon. At this point some wild boys dug open an
Indian grave, and found in it, with the Indian, a gun, brooches, and other
articles.'
It was recorded that it is probable that the soldiers and
rangers on their return from these expeditions to the settlements in Madison and
St. Clair, brought glowing descriptions of the beauty and fertility of the
country lying to the north. The first settlers of Macoupin came from Madison and
St. Clair, which fact gives color to the above supposition, according to the
account.
In a book entitled "My Own Times," by ex-Gov. John Reynolds of
Belleville, he holds the following language: "Mr. Coop and family, in the Spring
of 1815, broke through the old Indian frontier of Madison County, and settled in
the limits of the present county of Macoupin.
General Harris was twice
married, the second time to the widow of David Coop, Sr. He went to Iowa, where
Coop had moved, and where he died, and brought his bride back with him. Thus two
prominent families were united.
David Coop, Sr. and his wife were parents
of four sons and several daughters. William G. Coop, a son, was the first
treasurer of the county. It seems established that in the spring of 1815 the
family of David Coop, Sr. selected their home on the banks of the small stream
which was named after them, Coop's Creek, not far from the center of Hilyard
Township. Here they lived for about ten years, and in 1825 or 1826 removed to
the mound, thereafter to be known as Coop's Mound, which lies nearly six miles
northeast of Carlinville. Here they remained for a few years, after which they
again removed, this time to Iowa. (These are the words take from history.)
With this background, it is no wonder that the family of General John A.
Harris revered their father after his death in 1852. Their father had improved
them a fine farm on Lake Fork, had protected them from wolves which were quite
numerous in the timbered portions of the county, was the first sheriff of the
county, had come back a brigadier-general of militia from the Black Hawk War and
gone on to political heights in the state of Illinois.
At his death,
Harris was buried in the woods a short distance north of Sulphur Springs.
Last year the Nilwood Baptist Church celebrated the 100th anniversary of its
church building. A history of the church and other events affecting its people
was published in connection with the celebration. In preparing the history of
events, a search was made for the grave of John A. Harris at the Sulphur
Springs, where history books recorded he had been buried. "Only a rude stone
marks the spot where the bones of John Harris repose," an 1879 history relates.
The grave could not be located there. Further search of records then revealed
the general, his wife, Elizabeth, and son, John A., were removed from the
secluded graves and interred at Carlinville City Cemetery on a lot near the
Cooper monument. The church book goes on to read "Ironically, parties
representing the estate--the Harris heirs and Blackburn College--chose to erect
a very large memorial to the son, who died in 1871, with a bronze plaque
commemorating his founding the law chair at Blackburn; whereas the general and
Mrs. Harris received only small markers with legend limited to dates of birth
and death."
Now I come back to my story about the law school for
Carlinville which also answers the questions contained in the church book
relative to the small marker for General Harris and the large monument for his
son in the Carlinville City Cemetery.
Back in 1895, a newspaper titled
the Carlinville Republican (born Dec. 23, 1893 and died before the turn of the
century), carried an item of interest to a curious reporter like myself who
couldn't rest until the full story was known.
The 1895 item was headed "A
Law School for Carlinville." The account continued: "In looking over the old
records at the courthouse we find a will made by one A. J. Harris, who died in
1871, wherein the provision is made that all of his estate, amounting to about
$25,000, shall, after fifteen years, be sold, and appropriated to build a law
school at Carlinville. In this will he appointed five trustees with full power
to sell said real estate after fifteen years and build such a school.
"These trustees or executors are John M. Palmer, John Mayo Palmer, S.T. Mayo, A.
McKinsey DuBois and Nicklas DuBois. A. McKinsey DuBois has since died, and no
one seems to be attending to the estate only Niklas DuBois, who has collected
the rents and purchased a fine residence in Springfield. There was in all 320
acres of fine land in this and Montgomery County, and the land together with the
rents would amount to at least $25,000. Ten years ago parties tried to have the
will set aside, but the court ruled against them and instructed the trustees to
sell the land, collect the rents and proceed to build the law school at
Carlinville at once. The trustees paid no attention to the order of the court,
and the matter stands as it was only benefitting one man.
"The bar of
Macoupin County should meet and ask the court to appoint successors to the old
trustees, who will act and carry out the provision of the will.
"This old
board of trustees let part of the land sell for taxes one, but redeemed it. They
either do not care what becomes of the estate or they have lost all interest in
the matter. Carlinville should have the school and that at an early day. The
legal lights throughout the county should see that the matter is attended to at
one. We should think they would have been very anxious for the fifteen years to
elapse, instead of waiting twenty-five years."
General Harris died when
his son, Andrew Jackson, was in his early childhood. In searching records it was
confusing until it was found by abstractor Tom H. Ryan that due to the son's
devotion to his father, he took his father's name of John A. Harris when he was
about 22 years of age. The son was a student at law, and no doubt anticipated
admission to the bar, but was for years in declining health and never married.
After the disclosure that Andrew Jackson Harris and John A. Harris were one
and the same from the time of the general's death, records were more easily
read.
The late Governor John M. Palmer was the original executor of the
son's will.
A bill to construe the will was filed in Macoupin County
Circuit Court in September 1899. The court was asked to determine if the will
was altogether impracticable with the means provided in the will; and asked that
all lands be sold and distributed between the heirs at law according to their
rights.
In December 1900, several members of the Harris family asked the
court to direct the sheriff to summon Nicholas DuBois and require him to make an
accounting of his acts and doings as executor of Harris' estate. Eleven months
later, the court ruled that DuBois submit a report which DuBois carried out on
March 21, 1901.
Trustees requested in Sept. Term 1905 for order to sell
lots in Springfield purchased with a portion of the income which was derived
from the Harris estate and which had greatly increased in value.
An order
had been entered in the Jan. Term 1905 in Circuit Court, appointing W.E.P.
Anderson, Frank W. Burton, William F. Burgdorff, to the trustee vacancies
created by the deaths of A. McKim DuBois, John McAuley Palmer and John Mayo
Palmer. Nicholas DuBois and Samuel t. Mayo remained as trustees. Two months
later, Mayo resigned and William H. Steward was named as trustee in his place.
Steward became business manager and treasurer of the trustees.
Litigation
went on until 1908.
In August 1908, Judge Robert B. Shirley, presiding
judge in Macoupin County, found that the trustees had never at any time since
the death of John A. Harris, taken any steps or made any progress whatever in
establishing in any wise a law school at Carlinville in conformity with the
expressed desire of the testator.
The court found that the value of the
Harris estate in the hands of the trustees increased by rents and interest and
profits upon investments of rents to the amount of $12,000 in addition to the
increased value of the real estate and that the funds and property in the hands
of the trustees were wholly inadequate to establish the law school as intended
by the testator.
The court found that the Blackburn University, an
institution conducted at Carlinville at that time for approximately 40 years,
had ample and commodious grounds and equipment, an able corps of instructors,
and everything that would be requisite or desirable as a site for a law school.
The court found that the purpose of the testator could be substantially
accomplished by having such Harris Law School conducted at said Blackburn
University in connection therewith or as a part thereof or by establishing a
professorship therein.
Judge Shirley entered an order that it appeared to
the court that the defendants Mary A. Clark, Adaline E. Crane, Anna Coop,
Louellen , Edwin Coop, Leah Ridinger, Elizabeth Carter, Anna Bryan, Joseph Coop,
Thomas Coop, Samuel Coop, George Coop and Charles Coop had expressly consented
that a decree be entered awarding to the Blackburn University at Carlinville,
the one-half portion of all the property, moneys and assets after the payment of
costs, fees and expenses to be fixed by the court that may come to the hands of
the trustees of the last will of John A. Harris, and that the remaining one-half
part or portion may be distributed to the heirs at law of the said John A.
Harris.
The court recorded that the defendants Addie Coop, Milton Coop
and the unknown heirs of Nathan Coop, deceased, could not be found.
It
was therefore ordered by the court that the real estate be sold at auction or
private sale.
The court added that inasmuch as the said John A. Harris
and his parents were buried in a private cemetery upon lands not owned by the
testator or any of his family, and "said graves are now neglected and liable to
become obliterated and lost, said trustees shall procure a suitable burying lot
in the City Cemetery of Carlinville and shall remove the bodies of John A.
Harris and his parents from their present resting place and reinter the same in
such cemetery and shall erect a suitable stone to mark their last resting place
in such new cemetery not exceeding in cost $500."
On Jan. 9, 1909,
trustees filed in court their report in what manner they had executed the decree
of the court and it was approved. As a result there was then in their hands an
unexpended balance of $40,195.15 of the assets of the estate. At that time, the
court found that the trustees had not yet procured a monument to be erected and
that there were some notes and accounts of questionable value yet to be
collected if they were collectible. The court decreed that the trustees retain
the sum of $1,195.15 for the purpose of purchasing the monument and collecting
outstanding notes and accounts.
The remainder, 439,000 was then ordered
to be paid in the following manner: $19,500 to Blackburn University; $4,875 each
to Adaline Crane and Mary A. Clark; $2,166.66 to Ann Coop, widow of Samuel Coop;
$1,354.17 each to Luella Coop, Jewell Daggett and Charles Edwin Coop: $1,625.04
to Leah Ridinger, widow of David Coop; $464.28 each to Elizabeth Carter, Anna
Bryan, Thomas Coop, Samuel Coop, George Coop, Charles Coop and Joseph Coop.
The amount of the estate may not seem too large by today's standard but
compare the costs of today with the following:
A trustee's report
recorded Jan 9, 1909, showed that a house in Springfield on State St. rented for
$10 per month; $45 was received for 6 ½ tons of hay; $40.05 for 94 1/3 bu. oats.
Another report on the same day showed Nicholas DuBois, trustee, received $2 for
railroad ticket and expenses while attending a meeting; four tickets to Girard
cost $1; surrey $3; dinner for four, $1; round trip railroad ticket to Hillsboro
$1.40; dinner $.50; supper $.25.
Cemetery lot, $60; tickets to Nilwood
for William Biegert and W. H. Steward $.45; H. Riefenberg and son for casket
box, $5; Barr Bros. Team and man for one day, $5; Mrs. August Zaepffel for
spring wagon, $.50; two tickets to Springfield for two trustees, $2.50; dinner
for one trustee, $.35.
William Riegert for opening three graves, etc.,
$5; lining, $1; digging grave, etc. $3; labor assistance, $1; for recording deed
to cemetery lots, $.60.
Two tickets to Girard by two trustees, $.80; two
dinners, $.70; buggy and horse at Girard for trip to farm $1.50.
One
tenant on a farm received $7.50 for making 375 posts at $.02 each. Paid out $100
for perpetual care of cemetery lots.
The final report on the Harris
litigation was made on July 8, 1911, 40 years after Harris' will decreed that
his executors and trustees see that the Harris Law School "is conducted in the
manner adopted and approved by the most distinguished law schools in the
country."
When the bill to the will was filed in the Sept. Term 1899, the
court entered an opinion which included the following terms of the will in part;
"My desire to establish an institution of learning for the purpose of educating
young men for the practice of the profession of the law, or in other words, I
desire to establish a law school at my home in Carlinville which should be kept
and called by the name of the Harris Law School."
I could find in the
records I searched only in which Harris lived in Carlinville. The description
was written in an 1895 account of "Reminiscences of the Early Days of
Carlinville" by "one who has seen the changes made." The reminiscences were of
the homes on East Second South Street starting from South Broad Street running
east. East Second South Street was the "main" street of Carlinville in Ye Olden
Time. It was on this street that John M. Palmer lived before becoming governor
of the state of Illinois one hundred and one years ago. The home in part still
stands at the corner of East Second South and South East Streets and is occupied
by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Morse. Part of the home was later moved down the hill east
and occupied as a home to the present day. Palmer lived in what was known as the
"English lord's house" on the hill. So called by Dr. Cook, an Englishman, who
built it, (then a one story, but with such elaborate, star embellished stucco
ceiling, as had never before been seen in these parts). This house was later
moved by Governor Palmer and was afterwards long the home of Don Burke, and with
still further additions the spacious home for many ears of "Auditor" Gore.
At this time, I cannot take the space to give a word picture of the many
prominent and learned men who lived on East Second South Street one hundred
years ago as recalled in 1895, but I will quote that written then about the
house located at the northeast corner of Ellison and East Second South Street
"Having passed the present home of Mr. S. Groves as too utterly modern for our
present purposes, we cross diagonally the street from Uncle Peter Keplinger's to
the house in which many years ago Grandma Dumville trained the three Harris
children, Mary, John and Ada, in the way she wanted them to go, and this same
John Harris left 300 acres good Macoupin land, the income of which is
accumulating for a law school in Carlinville, by provisions of his will."
A Beautiful Heritage for Carlinville had the Dream Come True
Contributed by Cindy LeMons, written by Lucille Carney, Macoupin Historian, prior to her death 08 Feb 1980
Macoupin County ILGenWeb Copyright
Design by
Templates in Time
This page was last updated
07/01/2022