LIBRARY OUTLINE EARLY PEORIA

LIBRARY   OUTLINE         EARLY PEORIA

                            NORMAN   V.  KELLY

 

After thirty-years of talking and writing about Peoria, Illinois I can tell you that there are a lot of people out there that would prefer that I talk just about Gangsters….Trouble is if That is all I did I would make 5 minute talks….because the truth is…we didn’t have any ‘real gangsters.’

 

Of course  my idea of a gangster is AL CAPONE….Our Pet Gangster….BERNIE SHELTON was far from an Al Capone and he didn’t get here to Peoria until late 1940 or very early 1941. Sure we had Thugs…Crooks, thieves, killers and dangerous people, which I will tell you about…so stay tune.

I wanted to start my series of four Peoria talks by going to back to our very beginning….Well…at Least right around the time when we became a city…which was 1845.  

 

There was life in this area for at least 10,000 years, or longer     but I thought I would start in the 1830’s.

 

So tonight I will cover some of the early history of Peoria and then outline what I hope to talk about and give you an idea of what I hope to cover in these 4 scheduled series…..on Peoria, Illinois  1840’s through  1950.  It only took me 32 years to understand where we came for so I hope in 4 hours you at least get an idea.  Almost every thing I ever said about Peoria is in the written word and can be researched in my files at the Downtown Library, Books, and online.

 

                                                                     OUR  HERITAGE ?

 

So we are called Peoria…that must mean we are connected with the Peoria Indians…right?  Well I want to show you a real  full-blooded Peoria Indian Chief.

Here he is…his name is GEORGE   FINLEY     ‘PATH OF THE STORM.’    Peoria Indian was said to have been    HE WHO WALKS ABOUT WITH A PACK ON HIS BACK’     and under his picture it says   OUR HERITAGE…..

The Chamber of Commerce back in the days when we wanted folks to come and visit us as tourists USED THIS    image of this Indian Chief  as a Tourist Attraction…..Truth is that Old  George here never saw Peoria and he certainly had nothing to do with our Heritage.  Sadly  in 1958  according to Congressional records Old George was not even a ‘FULL-BLOODED  PEORIA Indian    What we took from the Peoria Indian here in Peoria was his Tribal NAME… So The PEORIA INDIAN IS OUR   NAMESAKE    George was born in Oklahoma in 1854…The Peoria Tribe was driven out of this area in 1720 by another tribe…and in 1820 they were driven from Northern Illinois…where they fled to Oklahoma and Kansas….George was a good citizen…a 32 degree Mason and a Tribal policeman…

 

                                                                          EARLY   PEORIA

 

I love to think about early Peoria…here along the Illinois River…just a trading post, a Wide spot cleared of trees and wilderness…It is amazing to me how we grew.  Keep in mind…eventually there were….at least 32 villages, towns or whatever they called themselves along the Illinois River and yet we grew head and shoulders above all of them  WHY?

 

You don’t have to be a historian to understand that simply said it was Beer and Whiskey THAT STARTED US OFF…AND IT STAYED LOYAL TO US UNTIL September of 1917….which I will tell you about.

 

                                                                   A  CITY  1845

 

By 1828 a very exciting thing happened here…that was the time when the first Steamboat came into the Peoria Lake and it was the most excitement this place ever had.  It docked at the foot of what we call Main street and it was a tremendous success from that day on.  However it was not until 1830 that Saint Louis sent its first Boat up here loaded with all kinds of Products.  From that day on at least 6 Steamboat Companies made Peoria a very important stop on it’s line.  We shipped and received products of every kind and those boats brought People to this small city until Rail Roads and Trucks pretty much put them out of business….Sad  but they remained as excursion and vacation boats for years after that.  We even have a replica here today…

 

By 1835 we called ourselves a TOWN…AND     In April of 1845 Peoria, Illinois became a city.  Like today not everyone voted, in fact only 215 people voted and 53 of those folks said NO. We began CONSTRUCTION ON A      NEW   JAIL   AND A COURTHOUSE   

 

By  1837   Peoria had its FIRST  brewery which would have been located near the Bob Michel Bridge, and by 1843 our first large DISTILLERY was in business.    By 1850 we had another huge Distillery perking along and before the end of the year we had a total of 6 distilleries and 7 Breweries.   (13)       So the proof is right there. Before the city of Peoria WAS 6 years old we are in the Booze and Beer Business  Big time.  Of  course that meant new jobs and new people. WITHIN   20 YEARS    we were commonly known as The Alcohol Capital of The World.  

 

Our POPULATION  by 1850 was        5,095                  people all claiming to be citizens of Peoria, Illinois which at that time was a whopping One Square mile…with the center being Main and Hamilton.   By 1855 we had increased our population by just over 3,000 more people.

And by 1860 we numbered   14,045 people…That is amazing given that period in our history. The count at that time was 9 distilleries and 6 breweries within our city limits.  We continue to add land as we grew as well.

 

                RAILROADS????     Were not a major factor here until   1855  then amazing growth….                  

                                                                 TIME OUT FOR MURDER

                                                                         

                                                                      HARVEY   HEWETT

                                                                  Brown and Williams 1-15-51

 

I wrote about 235 murders in our history from 1845 through 1950, some of them were sensational.    Back in 1850 a wealthy rancher and farmer came into town to sell off some of his stock.  His name was Harvey HEWETT. He spent the day selling off some horses and Cattle, down at the PEORIA  STOCKYARDS…. and all under the watchful eyes of three Shady characters named:   WILLIAMS    BROWN and  JORDAN….As the Sun began to go down Hewitt drove his Horse and Buggy West.  When he got to what we now know as ADAMS and  SPRING Streets…these 3 men ‘WAYLAID HIM’  I GUESS WAYLAID MEANT THEY TRIED TO KILL HIM AND ALMOST BEAT HIM TO DEATH.  They took his money and fled south towards Springfield, Illinois.

 

Hewitt lay in a doctor’s office in terrible condition…but managed to stay alive for 9 days…During that time the sheriff talked with him and soon knew exactly who the three men were that attacked Hewitt…he rounded up a posse of about thirty men and horses and off they went after the three well-known bad men.

 

Well, in those days, a posse like that were out to hunt down the men and in most cases they simply caught up with them and hung them.  Folks were surprised when the sheriff came back with WILLIAMS  and BROWN    alive….

JORDAN  Escaped to New Orleans….

 

                                                                      THE   MOB

The two men were tossed in our small jail with a heavy guard.  When a rumor spread that they were going to postpone the trial…which mean the hanging…of course…a huge mob of men and boys rushed  the jail to finish the job the POSSE should have completed….Brown and Williams armed with a small knife and a brick put up a fight…injury one and even killing one of the mob…They were drug out of the jail for hanging.

 

Once out to a tree they discovered that no one had a rope…by that time the sheriff was back in charge and the prisoners were actually returned to the jail….TRUTH is the judge was waiting for the Louisiana authorities to catch JORDAN….so they judge went ahead with the trial here in Peoria…Brown and Jordan were convicted and on January 15, 1851 they were hanged.

 

                                                                        THE  HANGING

 

Way out in the Prairie….which we now know as Second and SANFORD    a DUAL gallows was built. On a bitterly cold January morning well over 15,000 people…more than triple  our population showed up for the ‘Out Door Hanging.

 

The prisoners were brought up in an open horse drawn wagon as the people parted to let the cart through.  Within minutes the men were staring out at the screaming angry mob…then suddenly it was silence as they stared out/  There were two parsons the sheriff and the hangman up there as the wind kicked up actually swaying the gallows.  They put a black hood over each prisoner and reporters claim that they could hear the crack of the killer’s necks as the trap was sprung.  Two doctors pronounced them dead a few minutes later and the bodies were taken by a horse drawn hears out to  POTTERS Field out near Bartonville to be buried.  In all Peoria executed 8 men for murder here, executing them either inside the old jail or out on the lawn. Two other men, whom I will tell you about were executed by electric chair in Joliet     Illinois  .   You can read all about these ten executions in my book   UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD…Free from the library.

 

                        1,934       1,934                      HOW WE GREW    1,934                             1,934 

                                                                           CITY   BEGINS

                                                                                    1845

 

By 1845 we had 32 Businesses in our little City….We had 575 kids under 10 living here along with other different ages with 874 people over 20….88 oldsters over 50 for a total of 1,934  folks…of course people came and went in those days…many of them certainly did not registers as ‘Peoria Citizens’  Just out side our limits was the Illinois River…Vast Wooded areas, and miles of Prairies….

 

Among those businesses were 27  DRY GOODS stores…’ selling  hardware, groceries and even jewelry.  We had a sawmill, a tannery and blacksmiths.  There were 3 drug stores Included and of course we had a brewery.  There were 2 churches in town…more like town meeting places but they were listed as Presbyterian churches.  Small manufacturers and a gunsmith added to the cities buildings.   We had 2 book stores and remnants of a library     

There was a newspaper and a candlestick maker, and the town flourished.

 

Almost weekly a new business was built or talked about and daily the Steamboats and packet boats entered our area and docked down at the end of Main Street.  We were a bustling…busy place and we never stopped growing.

 

                                                             WHAT MADE  UP  PEORIA?

 

                               OUR FIRST MAYOR   WILLIAM  HALE   …he was no fool  he bought 700 acres….some of which was right in the city….. and got very rich on the sale of those propertied    America in action 

 

    A TEMPERANCE GROUP IF FORMED  THE BEGINNING OF Anti-Saloon people    670 membes and growing

 

 

1846               Our First Black Church here in town. And we have 5 private schools.

             

 What about   Rail Roads….  Not a factor until 1855   

      1848   By now our little city has  8 churches.

 

      1849      Giant 6 foot   170   Pound Cat Fish was caught…now what do we have  giant carp?

 

1850       Five distilleries going full blast in Peoria

1851           A HUGE Boat Building Center is up and running.

 

       1854   at the courthouse steps  Douglas and Lincoln debate…Peoria was divided as to SLAVERY   A hot bed of politics here.  LINCOLN   DOUGLAS 

 

        City continues to expand and grow  the population in 1860  was     14,450

 

1860      MADAMS

 

1861  CIVIL   WAR   ON THE SIDE OF union AND Lincoln has been to Peoria a total of 17 times according to historians.

 

1861  Our Mayor is  William Willard is behind a Recruitment Rally and Peoria is Patriotic… Opens up   CAMP LYON   OVER NEAR THE GATE OF Glen Oak Park  they train initially 7,500  many of them sent to Camp Roberts in Davenport, Iowa

 

1862   Camp Peoria is revitalized    Adams and Mary street   by the way  536 Peoria County Men Died in that Civil War.

 

1862   Lincoln TAXES Beer and BOOZE   $2.00  group got it lowered…Peoria paid between 15 Million and 35 million in Taxes and certainly helped Finance the War for the UNION….Lincoln created the INCOME TAX  1862   IF YIOU MADE $799 no TAX SO IT WAS LIKE A 800 DOLLAR DEDUCTABLE  OF COURSE THAT CHANGED..TRUTH IS 81% OF THE MONEY COLLECTED TO AID THE WAR EFFORT WAS FROM Breweries and Distilleries  plus a few other companies…so like Peoria we survived on Booze money and so did the Union Army….  We were first dubbed   The alcohol Capital Of The world around this time….most folks later called us the Alcoholic Capital of the world…which might be somewhat true…..

 

1865  War is OVER and Peoria is the home of   14 Distilleries and 7 Breweries….that’s a total of   21

 

1866    FIRST TELEGRAPH WAS SENT TO Peoria and our Mayor then telegraphed the mayor of Peoria Heights…it was a sensation here and the fact that they could in a sense talk to people across the USA was amazing at the time.

 

1870  Our ten year census shows that we have a population of   22,289

 

1879… City of Peoria Executed   James McNulty from Chillicothe  found guilt of murdering his wife…was like a celebrity every day people cam to the jail and sat an talked to him…but we hanged him on  _______________________________________

 

1880  Population 29,259   country and city have grown way beyond expectation  Famous breweries  GIPPS  ( amberlin Beer) Leisy brothers have  “Rochester” Beer

 

1882    September  1882     SHOW PICTURE   Magnificent  GRAND OPERA HOUSE OPENS IN September  Center of Peoria Society and ranked among the top 5 beautiful Opera Houses in Peoria…truly a wonderful  state of the art place that would seat just over 1,700 people.  It burned to the ground in December of 1909     MOURNED.

 

1887       Greenhut and associates form a massive Distillery Trust  his home is on the left as you go up Main Street  truly RICK  ‘Whiskey Barons’  in this town  invested in our city and together they had an extensive run until 9-1917  Conservation Act  Shut them down…but they survived…

 

Alcohol capital of the world   taxes ranged from 15 million to 35 million a year….

 

1890   GAY NINETIES   JUST ANOTHER PHONY SOCIAL ELITE WHERE THE RICH DID EVERYTHING THEY COULD TO SEPARATE THEIR LIVES FROM THE COMMON  POOR  PEOPLE.

 

1900   Turn of the Century  Population 76,121 people and out city was 9.1 square miles…and a county of 626 Square miles.

 

1917  April 6, 1918  America declares War on Germany and its allies

 

1920    18^th Amendment closes our taverns…and we will talk about  Prohibition  during the March  12^th meeting.

 

1929   We will talk about the GREAT DEPRESSION AND Prohibition here in Peoria, Illinois   a ‘pocket of prosperity’  soup kitchens  unemployment  sister built the North building…some got rich.

 

 

1930   Population  104,969  Tumultuous   thirties…we will cover the gambling  prostitution and kidnappings of 1930’s  in March along with prohibition.

 

1940          Population  105,187    

 

1941  WW11   Begins and we will finally talk about gangsters  gambling  prostitution black Market, chiseling Cheating and the Incredible Wide-open  wild Downtown Peoria….I was down there as a kid and I can tell you it was a riot even for kids.

So be here April 9, 2012…