|
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Visitors Guide to
Quincy
Adams County, Illinois |
| |
|
|
Quincy sits on the bluffs on the banks of the
Mississippi River. In 1818, John Wood, a New York native, to the
Illinois Country and in 1821 he travelled north from nearby Pike
County to investigate the claim of a friend who had been granted a
land bounty in the Military Tract. The Military Tract was a large
tract of land in Western Illinois set aside by act of Congress as
payment to soldiers who served in the War of 1812. John Wood was so
impressed with the natural resources of the locality purchased the
160 acre bounty from the veteran for $60 and the next year became
the first European settler in the area.
Wood
was impressed with the location’s timber, fertile soil,
abundance of game, by the fact that it was the only site within
100 miles where the bluff reached the Mississippi River, and by
the fact that the site had a natural harbor. Wood was joined by others
who had come to settle on land grants or to engage in trade and a
small settlement known as Bluffs grew.
In 1825 the state of Illinois sent commissioners to the newly
created Adams County to locate a county seat.
The commissioners drove a stake into the public square of
Bluffs (John’s Square) and named the settlement Quincy in honor
of the newly-elected U.S. President, John Quincy Adams. The county had at this time an estimated population of about
seventy.
|
Quincy was incorporated as a town in 1834 and as
a city in 1840. Quincy’s earliest settlers came primarily from New
England. By 1838, Quincy
becoming an economic boom town. The city boasted a new flour mill, a
stove-making facility, a wagon and carriage business and a
successful steel plow enterprise. Besides these Quincy had its share
of coopers and cabinetmakers, saddlers and leather makers. Its
pork-packing and meat-processing center rivaled any other on the
Mississippi north of St. Louis. The climate and soil of Adams County
is ideal for agriculture and farms yielded excellent crops of grain
which allowed flour mills to flourish in Quincy. The native forests
provided saw mills with abundant quantities of oak, hickory and
walnut timber. Riverboat trade flourished and because of these
conditions Quincy acquired the nickname “The Gem City.” Quincy was
an energetic city that doubled in size from 1838 to 1840 and would
grow to a city of 30,000 by the end of the 1840s.The
early settlers of Quincy were soon joined by a large number of
immigrants who were escaping the political turmoil in Germany
began arriving in the region in the late 1840s bringing to the
community a number of skilled craftsmen.
|
 In early 1839 the first of thousands of Mormons
would come to Quincy seeking refuge from an October 1838 executive
order by Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs that “the Mormons must
be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the
State if necessary for the public peace” and be out of Missouri by
March 8, 1839. The Mormons found refuge in Quincy where they were
kindly treated and sheltered before they founded Nauvoo, 50 miles to
the north, in the spring of 1840. Quincy by this time, with its
strong German and New England population base, was developing a
reputation as a center for intellectual inquiry, equality, and
humanitarian care and relief. The question of slavery became an
issue as most Quincy inhabitants were abolitionists and
the city became an important part of the Underground Railway
system. In 1842 Dr. Richard Eells was caught helping slave named
Charley in his attempt to escape from his owner in Missouri. Eels
was tried and found guilty by Judge Stephen A. Douglas. The case was
appealed and made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court where the
justices upheld Eells conviction in 1853 even though he had died by
that time. The Dr. Richard Eells House
(photo left) is recognized by the National Parks
Service, as one of the 42 most important Underground Railroad sites
deserving national recognition and is operated a museum to explain
both the Underground Railroad, the lifestyles of the era, and the
architectural techniques of the period.
|
 As a river town, Quincy was not only an important
commercial center but a political center as well. The sixth of the
famous Lincoln-Douglas debates was held in John’s Square (now known
as Washington Park), on October 13, 1858 before an estimated crowd
of over 15,000 people. It was here that Lincoln got Douglas to admit
that he favored permitting the states to settle the question of
slavery within their borders. This statement helped Douglas win the
election for the Senate seat, but was used against him two years
later when he lost the presidential election to Lincoln. In 1860,
Quincy native John Wood was elected Lt. Governor and became
Illinois’ 12th Governor when Governor William H. Bissell died. Wood
successfully petitioned the Illinois Legislature to stay in Quincy
to oversee the construction of a new home he was building and his
existing mansion temporarily became the Governor’s Mansion. The
John
Wood Mansion (photo left) has been restored and is the centerpiece of a complex
operated by the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County.
|
The Civil War had a great effect on Quincy.
Ex-Governor Wood was appointed Quarter Master of the Illinois
Militia and mass meetings were called to promote enlistment. With
the exception of Cairo, Quincy was the most important military point
in the state and became a center of great military activity.
Companies gathered here from various parts of the state to be
organized into regiments. Manufacturers were busy in making
munitions of war and orators made patriotic speeches and pastors
preached patriotic sermons. There were two hospitals established,
and numbers of sick and wounded soldiers, were brought from the
camps and battlefields. Two societies of women, "The Needle Pickets"
and the "The Good Samaritans," organized to make provisions for the
sick and wounded in hospital and camp. In 1886 Quincy was chosen as
the site for a soldiers' and sailors' home for disabled Illinois
veterans of the Mexican and Civil Wars. This facility is still in
operation and is the largest and oldest veterans’ home of the four
in Illinois. In 1975 The All Wars Museum opened on the grounds of
the Illinois Veterans Home at Quincy and has over 5,000 artifacts
from every United States military engagement dating from the
Revolutionary War through to today’s current conflicts.
|
In 1868 the Chicago Burlington &Quincy Railroad
completed a bridge over the Mississippi River at Quincy, Illinois
and the coming of the railroads meant the demise of river traffic at
Quincy. Quincy has always kept up with the modern innovations of the
times. The Quincy Gaslight and Coke Company started providing light
for homes and street lights since the 1850s and Street Railway and
Carrying Company laid its first track in 1867 from the post office
on Maine Street to the northern city limits. Franciscan friars
arriving as missionaries in the late 1850s responded to the need for
education in frontier Illinois by founding St. Francis Solanus
College in 1860. The State of Illinois chartered the College in
1873, which was renamed to Quincy College and Seminary in 1917 and
finally Quincy College in 1970.
|
For
several decades during the middle of the nineteenth century
Quincy was the second largest city in Illinois primarily because
of the commerce that its steamboat landings brought to the
community. Quincy had its rapid growth stunted when business
activities swung away from the river and other industrial
communities in the state experienced boom eras. During the last
quarter of the 19th century the city’s industrial output shrank
to the capacity of a single spur line railroad. The economic
contraction helped shaped contemporary Quincy. Its current population of just over
40,000 is not much higher than the 31,000 that lived in Quincy in
1890. This stable population has allowed Quincy to retain a 19th
century atmosphere. There are four major historic districts with
more than 2,000 structures listed on the National Register of
Historic Places. The Gardner Museum of Architecture and Design
conducts a series of tours of these historic neighborhoods paying
special attention to social and cultural history. Quincy has an
extensive park system and is known for having a large population of
dogwoods. The city has been a member of Tree City USA since 1986 and
holds a Dogwoods Festival every May.
|
 The city over the past several decades has redeveloping while
holding onto its German roots. It has established an extensive park system
and because of its large population of dogwoods has
been a member of Tree City USA since 1986. Quincy has a vibrant arts
community and is the home to many performing arts organizations
including the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Quincy Community Theater
and the Muddy River Opera Company. A juried art exhibit, the
Midsummer Arts Faire, is held in Washington Park, every June.
Quincy’s rich history has been preserved through museums such as the
Quincy Museum. Quincy is a charming, progressive community that
offers a wonderful destination for a daytrip or an extended stay.
Visitors can stop at the Villa Kathrine, a wonderfully unique
example of Mediterranean architecture located on a bluff with a
breath taking view of the Mississippi River. In addition to tours of
the house built by world traveler George Metz, the
Villa Kathrine
(photo left)
houses Quincy’s Tourist Information Center.
|
www.seequincy.com
The
official site if the Quincy Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
which promotes Adams, Hancock, and Pike Counties as destinations for
overnight visitors.
|
|
|
|
|
