On the Bluffs - Year 1800...

Imagine if you will, you are standing on the bluffs above the river bank of the Mississippi River, near the present site of Quincy, looking west.   The city of Quincy and the state of Illinois do not exist yet.   In fact, you are standing on a territory of the United States called "Indiana".   Yes, there are a few people living here, the Hopewell Indians have a small settlement and they've been around for several hundred years.

The land across the river is claimed by the country of France and you are standing on the western boundary of the new United States, which currently consists of just 16 states and territories.

In just a few years, Napoleon, the leader of France, and President Thomas Jefferson will make a super land deal and our country will end up owning all that land across the Mississippi for a paltry sum of $15,000,000.   Yes, that's "Fifteen Million Dollars"!   That land is called the "Louisiana Territory".

In 1818, the state of Illinois will come into existence and in 1825, the city of Quincy will be created.

The Early Years...

The town of Quincy was originally called Bluffs as it was the only town site for 150 miles where the bluffs came directly to the water line.   Quincy was renamed to commemorate the 1825 inauguration of John Quincy Adams as the 6th president of the United States.   The county was named Adams and to complete the triology, the city park was named John's Square (now Washington park).

Founder John Wood arrived from New York in 1821 to investigate a friend's land grant in this Illinois Military Tract which reached from the Mississippi to the Illinois River.   Wood chose this site in part because the harbor would be sufficiently deep even in low water.

Quincy's harbor is the largest natural harbor on the upper Mississippi River.   Like the harbor built at Dubuque, Iowa, it sheltered steamboats from moving ice during the winter.   Records indicate that at one time as many as 2,200 steamboats spent the winter in the Quincy Harbor.

Early on there was so little population north of Quincy that most steamboats carried only freight.   By the 1840s, however, steamers were full of passengers, each line vying to outdo the other in size, luxurious accommodation, outstanding presentation and bounty in meals, and speed.

According to a Quincy businessman, B.H. Miller interviewed in 1915, "A trip to Keokuk, Burlington, Rock island or one of the northern cities was a charming one.   The scenery along the great father of waters is not excelled in beauty by any on earth.   Passengers would crowd the decks with their telescopes and notebooks.   Others would be seen sketching the beautiful hills and landscapes as they passed along.   The ride from Keokuk to St. Louis began at 7 A.M. and was a 24 hour journey.   The fastest time on record between St. Louis and St. Paul was 800 miles in two days and 20 hours.   The Civil War sounded the death knell of the north/south oriented steamboats on the Mississippi River.

The Underground Railroad...

Quincyans were, for the most part, abolitionists.   The town, because of its proximity to the shores of Missouri, was known to be one of four major routes for the underground railroad whereby slaves where ferreted out of Missouri and on to freedom in Canada.

Slave trade had always been an accepted part of life in Missouri, as many settlers had arrived from Kentucky and Tennessee with their families and all their earthly possessions - including their slaves.   Though congregations and families often were divided, abolitionist preachers and sympathetic businessmen were asked to leave Missouri.

Missouri, bordered by three free states (Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas) was considered to be a "peninsula of slavery jutting into a sea of freedom."   Insurance companies insured against losses from runaway slaves and penalties were severe for those aiding in the escape of slaves.   Vigilante committees routinely patrolled the Mississippi river shorelines, freeing any unlocked or unlicensed boat and checking wagons for stowaways.

The main freedom route led west of Missouri to Lawrence, Kansas, and then north into central Iowa where the Quakers played a major role in establishing and maintaining the underground railroad.   Alton, Illinois, under the direction of Elijah Lovejoy, and Quincy, Illinois, were two other major routes.

From Quincy, the route led through Galesburg, then on to Chicago.   One Quincy sympathizer was credited with facilitating the departure of 300 slaves, and there were 42 other known operators in Adams County.   Two young college students from Quincy, caught aiding two slaves, were sentenced to twelve years in prison.   The owner reported that the slaves "would not be taking any more frolics of this nature in the near future."

For the most part, very little documentation exists regarding the underground railroad.   Laws strictly prohibited and severely punished those aiding slaves.   Strict confidence was required which meant that even children often were not aware of their parent's activities.   Hollow walls, hollow haystacks and woodpiles often served as way stations.   Those who were active felt they were opposing a morally corrupt system.

When the Civil war did break out, Quincy, situated as it was on the extreme western edge of Illinois and projecting into the state of Missouri, held a position of importance in Illinois that was second only to Cairo.   Companies gathered here to be organized and about 800 soldiers could be cared for in Quincy hospitals.   Many black men enlisted here to join Col. Gross and a Massachusetts regiment, or the 29th Colored Regiment.

George Rogers Clark...

The statue at Riverview park commemorates a little known player in the fortunes of Mississippi river settlers and the infant American nation.   While rebellious eastern colonists grappled with the English army in the east, settlers in the western frontiers (Kentucky and Tennessee) faced constant harrassment from the British-allied native Indians.

Glenn W. Glessner - Quincy, Illinois

Web Page Created on July 20, 2004