CHAPTER XIX.
pg. 61

Personal Taxes in 1860

     By 1860 Union County was entering a new epoch in its history.  However little development took place in this period until alter the Civil War was completed.
     In 1860, instead of having only one means of communicating with distant points - the river boat, Union County had overnight access to Chicago and Memphis and New Orleans could be reached in forty-eight hours by mail.  Since this widened the market for the farmer's products, large developments in agriculture took place.  Since the railroads burned wood for fuel, and used wooden ties and rails, work in timber became a leading industry in the county.
     With the widening of opportunity, the people were able to achieve a higher standard of living, to have better furniture, better clothing and better houses.  Stores carried larger stocks of merchandise and more cash savings were accumulated by the citizens
     It is significant that while Jonesboro and Anna were the centers of business, many country stores carried a fairly adequate stock of merchandise.  This was probably due to the face that roads were difficult to travel in bad weather so that the people in each locality made their purchases as near their homes as possible.
     The merchants who paid a tax on their stock of goods were William Kinnison, I. M. Randall, Joel Ragsdale, L. Hauser, N. C. Meker, Adam Buck, J. N. Albright, A. B. Agnew, Robert Blick, J. P. Bohanan, J. M. Brisbin, D. D. Cover, E. Cover, S. B. Caruth, A. N. Dougherty, F. M. Davidson, Winstead Davie, Frick and Lamer, Frick and Glasscock, Moses Goodman, J. Howitz, Moses Hutson, R. Johnson, Charles Clutts, G. A. Kirchner, Gore & Co., McElhaney and Bro., E. McKeeby, G. W. Mumaugh, Marks & Dodds, John E. Naill, James I. Provo, B. W. Sitter, Edward Terpenitz, Silas C. Toler, Thomas Watkins, C. H. Williford, J. H. Williams, Willard & Co., John E. Winn, Williams & Co., Adam Cruse, David Green, John MacConnell, S. P. Whittaker, L. Misenheimer & Co., Moses Fisher, S. E. Davis, A. Aden, Buck Welch, G. W. Frogge, E. MacKinder and Marschalk & Cruse.
     Of these merchants, nine carried a stock of less than one hundred dollars, five between two and three, five between three and four, one between four and five, four between five and six, two between six and seven, five between one and two thousand dollars, two between two and three thousand, one between four and five, one between five and six, one between six and seven, one ten thousand dollar stock and one twelve thousand.  There were thirty- three stores with a stock of less than one thousand dollars and twenty over one thousand.
     In 1860 horses, cattle, mules and asses, sheep, hogs, wagons and carriages, clocks and watches, pianos, merchandise, manufactured goods, moneys and credits, stocks and bonds, and unenumerated properties were assessed.  The acreage under cultivation was

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also recorded.  These assessments reveal that the county was decidedly an agricultural county with 2848 horses, valued at $134,645; 7987 cattle valued at $71,968; 334 mules and asses, $19,433; 5406 sheep, $5448; 16,694 hogs, $18,773; having a total value of $250,287.  This stock was mortgaged for $15,047, which means that six percent of the livestock was under mortgage.
     Other assessments included 1127 carriages and wagons, valued at $29,897; 1239 clocks and watches, $9169; ten pianos, $1635; merchandise, $78,802; manufactured articles, $3,390; moneys and credits, $140,339; stocks and bonds, $11,000; unenumerated property, $98,951.|
     19,704 acres of land were producing wheat, 22,207 acres producing corn and 3987 acres other products, making a total of 45,898 acres or less than one-fifth of the total area of the county in cultivation.
     It is interesting to notice that more cash was assessed than any other item, horses coming second.  Apparently only $15,047 of this cash had been loaned with mortgages for security and only two persons in the county had anything invested in stocks and bonds, Willis Willard, $10,000 and Charles M. Willard, $1,000.  The Wheat Growers Bank, the only bank in the county, was listed as having $5602 in cash.
     Pianos were owned by E. Harwood, Willis Willard, Charles M. Willard, John Daugherty (then Lieutenant Governor of the State of Illinois), John Humphrey, E. McKinder, P. Baxter, J. L. Freeze and Allen Bainbridge.
     J. N. Albright, M. Krentz, Adam Miller & Co., Amos W T . Barnum, Paul Frick, Jacob Green, Goodall & Co., Finch and Shick, Ignatius Brooks and Daniel L. Nusbaum were assessed for manufactured articles.  Most of the manufacturers owned saw and grist mills.  Finch and Shick owned what is now the Anna Stone
     There were 2149 taxpayers.
     There were thirty-two persons in the county who had more than $1,000 cash in addition to their real estate and other personal property.
     By 1860 Union County was divided on the question of slavery.  Jonesboro had been the site of one of the famous Lincoln and Douglas debates and John Daugherty who owned the Jonesboro Gazette and his editor Marschalk had broken their partnership and Marschalk had started the Democrat in Anna because of their difference in view regarding slavery.  In 1824 when the question of slavery had been submitted to the people of Illinois for a vote regarding the Illinois stand on the question, Union County was evenly divided.  However there were few colored people in the county.
     The people who had come before the railroad had not been wealthy.  Most of them had settled less than eighty acres of land at a cost of $1.25 per acre and few had more than the wagon in which they had come with a horse, cow, sheep and pig and a few personal belongings.

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     The Willards who had become the wealthiest family in the county had arrived with little more than their bare hands, a meager education and much foresight.  The persons running ferries were the first to accumulate more wealth than two or three hundred dollars.  Then business men prospered next but no great amount of speculation in land, etc. took place until after the established fact that the railroad would be built.
     The pioneers lived a rugged life and accumulation of personal belongings was gained only through hard work and perseverance.
     The land was always poor because it was thought by the earliest settlers that they would be able to stay only two or three years and move on because the fertility of the soil would be depleted by that time but they found that by a system of crop rotation they could make the soil continue to produce.  For this reason we see Union County develop into a predominantly agricultural area.  However, because the soil was and is not the highest type of soil in the state, after the more fertile regions were accessible on account of railroads, the county has not grown in population as several other agricultural counties have, in spite of the fact that it began its growth early.