This, then, was the extent of the improvements in and about Morristown when it was the county seat. It was in better condition to accommodate courts, etc., than was Richmond at its inauguration as seat of justice for the county, and the public could look for better accommodations than at the last named point. But dissatisfaction with the location grew apace, and it was soon a fixed fact that a contest for the removal and re-location of the county seat was unavoidable. In fact it began as soon as the decision of the Commissioners was known. As Geneseo was the only point that competed with Morristown for the honor conferred, it is natural to suppose that that was the point at which the great body of the disaffected would endeavor to establish their county town. But it was soon ascertained that there were several candidates for that honor. General dissatisfaction prevailed on account of the location as it then stood; four men out of five probably being anxious to remove it on account of the great distance to which they had to travel to attend courts. The site itself was delightful, and those principally interested in its property were enterprising, intelligent and popular. Other sites, however, equally as eligible for beauty and salubrity, and much more central, could be picked out of every third section in any of the more central townships; and to one of these points the people determined to take it. The county courts were held at Geneseo till the Summer or Fall of 1841. The first circuit court held in Morristown was in May, 1842, the last in May, 1844. As stated before, the legislature authorized the holding of courts in Geneseo till suitable accommodations could be prepared at the county seat. The public house at Morristown was conveyed to the county, and a contract for "improving it was made with David Gove and Nathaniel Walters, an order for seventy dollars being issued for their benefit December 9, 1840. On June 28, 1841, a contract was made with Thos. W. Corey and George Brandenburg, for the erection of the COMMODIOUS Court-house, 18 by 24 feet, one and a half stories high, and also for the building of a jail, according to specifications and contract made with another party for building one at Richmond. The public house, now (then) the county house, was rented to Corey and Brandenburg for two years for the sum of one hundred dollars, they to furnish a suitable courtroom for the use of all courts of the county during the two years, in which time they were to complete the public buildings. The courthouse was built. The jail was a mere structure on paper; the uncertainty of there being any use for it in that place causing the court to postpone its erection. The dissatisfaction with Morristown as the county town was so extreme that some of those who had been most determined to honor Geneseo with it, expressed a willingness to have it located at some other point than that of their choice, even at Sugar Tree Grove, rather than have it remain at Morristown. Commissioners had twice been appointed by the Legislature to locate a seat of justice for the county, and were sworn to study the interests, immediate and prospective, of the population in determining the site. The first selection it seems was a judicious one. But the people were dissatisfied with it, and a change was effected. The second was judicious or not, just as the parties might think. We can imagine no good reason for the choice save the liberal donation for the county. That it was liberal is certainly true, but the loss to which the citizens of the county would have been yearly subjected on account of the remoteness of the site from the center would have counterbalanced, four times over, the extra liberality of the enterprising proprietors of Morristown. This the people knew, and while determined to effect the removal of the county capital, they were very generally determined to designate the point at which it should be located. It is believed that this feeling of distrust in Commissioners possessed nearly every citizen of the county, and during the greater part of the agitation of the question no one proposed a resort to the old process; the reasonableness of the demand. for a removal was acquiesced in by the citizens of Morristown themselves. Indeed, Joshua Harper, one of the donors of the county, and principally interested in the prosperity of Morristown, was, in 1842, a candidate for the legislature, and if he had shown the least disposition to oppose the wishes of the people he could have got no support. He distinctly stated that if elected representative, and a majority of the voters of the county sent a petition for the county seat to be removed into the Winnebago swamps, into the swamps it should go. At least his influence should not prevent it. He was elected, and no man was ever more faithful to the interests of his constituents. Geneseo was the point to which the majority in the northern part of the county wished the seat of justice removed. A point near Sugar Tree Grove was selected by the southern. Some manoeuvering was resorted to to get an admission from opponents that a site on Section 7, 15, 3, was an eligible point for the location. All that was done, however, in the way of manoeuver was to get the admission before the name of the owner of the property should be known. The owner was Rev. Ithamar Pillsbury, of Andover. He was active in his efforts to secure the first location at Andover, but the position of J. M. Allan was too strong for him up to that time, and after there was feud between the two points Andover and Geneseo, and it was thought best by the Pillsbury party that he should not be known in the transaction till suitable admissions had been made. by the other party. We have said the "Pillsbury party," but the prime mover, the great laborer in behalf of the point near Sugar Tree Grove was Joseph Tillson, Esq. The "Judge," as he is usually called, was an early settler, and an active man in some important matters of the county. Canvassing for signatures to a petition locating the town near Sugar Tree Grove-at what is now Cambridge-progressed steadily, though with very variable results, as different localities were entered. The petition was drawn up in Wethersfield, by Col. Wells it is believed. John Kilvington circulated it at Wethersfield, about Barren Grove, on Spring Creek, and obtained a few signatures in Geneseo, after which the Judge took charge of it. When it was ascertained that a majority of the voters of the county had signed the petition to have the county seat located on Section 7, 15, 3, a remonstrance was got up at Geneseo against the location, with a petition added that Commissioners be again appointed to locate a county seat. It is believed J. M. Allan, whose home was then at Geneseo, was the most active man in behalf of his locality. The contest was warm. The Judge sent the petition north of Green River for signatures, and it was returned with a single additional name affixed. He took it himself, went over the same ground, and obtained forty signatures, Brandenburg leading off. He also re-canvassed the settlement at Andover. The petition was sent to Oxford, where a friend promised to circulate and return it. The time for its reception arrived, but no petition came; the Judge was in a flurry; time was getting precious; Wm. A. Ayers volunteered to look up the missing paper, and get such signatures as had not been appended; he found it shut up in a chest, where it had been placed for safe keeping, with a very few additional names on it. Mr. A. pushed the matter along, and without difficulty obtained the signature of every man he met in that locality. It was extensively signed throughout the southern part of the county. A few residents on Spring Creek who signed the petition to locate at Cambridge, it is known, afterwards signed the remonstrance. The petition to have Cambridge the new seat of government of the county was forwarded to Colonel John Buford, of Rock Island, who then represented this district in the Senate. A bill was brought before the Senate re-locating the county seat of Henry County. It passed both houses on petition of a majority of the citizens of the county. The bill locating the county seat of Henry County was approved by the Governor February 21, 1843. It provided that the courts should be held at Morristown till accommodations should be provided at the new location. It also required the re-conveyance of all property that had been deeded to the county at Morristown, and the.refunding of money donated. 66 The difficulty of pleasing the citizens of Henry County in the location of their county town was a matter well known outside. The truth is, there was very little in the immediate vicinity of the location except a fine grove of timber to demonstrate the wisdom of fixing the seat of justice at that point. There was no house north of Sugar Tree Grove nearer than those immediately about Geneseo. West there were but two or three until within a mile of Andover. In the grove, and at the East End," a settlement had fairly commenced. South of what is now the Town of Cambridge, Red Oak, nearly six miles distant, was the nearest settlement. There was no Bishop Hill Colony, no Galva, and no one in that township but James Bonham, at Hickory Grove, and two or three in the northeast corner of the town. A good settlement existed at Wethersfield and along Barren Grove in the southeast corner of the county; but at Wethersfield an anti-Cambridge feeling existed to a small extent, which grew out of a desire of those malcontents, or the most of them, to be annexed to the County of Stark. At Oxford, in the southeast corner of the county, and about Richland Grove, west of Andover, a few families had collected. The settlement at Andover was one of the most flourishing in the county. Ten miles northwest was a cluster of three or four houses, and a respectable settlement a few miles further, on Rock River. All the settlements in the southern part of the county (except the slightest opposition at Wethersfield), favored the location, but how was a town to be built? Men and money were required. There was but little immigration to the county or state, and where were numbers and dollars to be obtained, was the question of the hour. MORRISTOWN COLONY. In the Winter of 1835-'6, a notice was inserted in several of the New York city daily papers, calling a meeting of persons interested in Western colonization. This was held in Congress Hall, and at a subsequent |