Mr. Thomas offered the following resolution :

Resolved, That it is the intention of this Board, as an act of justice, to pay a bounty of fifty dollars to each person from this county who has enlisted in the United States service for the term of three years since the beginning of this war, and who has not heretofore received a bounty from this county, and that they intend to make payment as soon as, in their judgment, the pecuniary condition of the county will permit.

Resolution adopted.

Mr. Springer offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That the War Fund Committee be and they are hereby authorized to pay the bounty offered by this Board to the wives or families of volunteers entitled to the same, in cases where such volunteers cannot now be paid in person by the Committee, upon receiving from said wives or families a receipt, order or power of attorney from said soldier authorizing said Committee to pay such bounty to said wife or family.

At the March term, 1864, of the County Court, the Clerk reported that he had issued and delivered to the War Fund Committee orders or warrants to the amount of $203.70. At the June term, the Committee on Distribution of the Bounty Fund reported, with the names of the recipients thereof, that they had paid out in bounties, according to instructions, the sum of $31,273.07.

At the September term of the Supervisors' Court, on the 13th, a resolution was adopted pledging the county to pay a bounty of $150 to each of the volunteers who had enlisted since the 8th inst., or might hereafter enlist, and $50 to each volunteer who had enlisted from the 9th day of March to the 8th day of September of the year 1864.

The special war tax of McLean County for 1863 was $28,660.23.

At the December term, 1864, the Commissioner for the sale of swamp-lands, A. J. Merriman reported the receipts to amount to $97,251.31, and that the subscription of $70,000 to the State Board of Education had been paid.

At the January term, 1865, the Board of Supervisors passed another resolution, offering a bounty of $300 to each volunteer who should enlist under the last call of the President for 300,000 men in order to prevent the disgrace of a draft in the county. We speak of these resolutions of the Board of Supervisors to show the spirit of McLean County, and that its citizens are ever ready to meet any demand upon their patriotism, and to rise to the occasion, whatever it may be, on all subjects.

On January 31, 1865, the Board of Supervisors passed most honorable resolutions in reference to the recent death of Hon. Isaac Funk, for years a very active and efficient member of the Board, and also resolutions of sympathy with the family on the death of Mrs. Funk, which occurred on the same day as that of her husband.

At the September term, 1865, on the 11th thereof, the Court received communications from Col. Bloomfield and Col. McNulta to surrender to its care the colors of the Twenty-sixth and of the Ninety-fourth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, which they had respectively commanded. The communications were received and referred to special committee. At the same term, the war fund tax of the county amounted to $50,150.15 for the current year. Mr. William Thomas, agent of the war fund, reported that bonds

to pay bounties to soldiers had been issued to the amount of $189,400.

At the December term, the Clerk reported the amount of property taxed in the county to be $8,443,165, and the amount of tax levied for the current year was $370,767.87.

D

The total war expenses of the county up to June 9, 1866, are reported to be $411,124.93.

The amount of war fund taxes for 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865 was $240,275.93. The amount of bonds for bounties redeemed in cash by the county up to June 9, 1864, was $208,103.39.

The amount of tax levied in McLean County in 1866 was $395,953.54.

The valuation of property for the year 1867 in McLean County amounted to $9,627,990, and the amount of tax levied thereon for the same year was $407,133.99. At the March term of the Board of Supervisors, 1868, the report of the cost of ten iron bridges recently erected in the county was $27,095.50.

The contract for the erection of the soldiers' monument in Franklin Square was taken at $15,000.

COURT HOUSE.

At the term of the Supervisors' Court for McLean County, March 3, 1868, Mr. O. M. Colman, Chairman of the Special Committee on new Court House, submitted the following Report:

TO THE HONORABLE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF MCLEAN COUNTY,

Gentlemen: Your Committee appointed at the December term of your Court, to whom was referred the matter of building a Court House for the county, beg leave to submit the following report, to wit:

Having considered the pressing need of a Court House for the better accommodation of the public offices of the county, and the greater security of the public records, and also the general public feeling in favor of the erection of such a building, connected with the encouraging financial condition of our county, entirely out of debt, we would recommend the erection of a good, substantial fire-proof building, according to plans and specifications herewith submitted.

We have visited and examined some of the best buildings in the State, and have also been in consultation with a number of the most eminent architects in the Northwest, for the purpose of ascertaining the style, size and expense of building best suited to the present and future wants of the people of the county.

· From among several beautiful designs that have been submitted for our adoption, we have selected that of Messrs. Cochran & Piquenard, of Chicago.

Your Committee would recommend the public square, in the city of Bloomington, as the site of such building.

For carrying into effect the foregoing provisions, your committee would recommend the appointment of a Board of Commissioners to be styled Court House Commissioners; said Board to consist of five persons, whose duties shall be the employment of an Architect and Superintendent; the advertising for all bids; the awarding of all contracts, and the general supervision of the erection of said Court House; said Board to keep a complete and full account of all expenditures on the same, and report them and the progress of the work at each meeting of the Board.

The committee would also recommend the issuing of County Bonds for the above purpose in accordance with an act of the last Legislature providing therefor.

All of which is respectfully submitted,

0. M. COLMAN, Chairman.

On motion of Mr. Sutherland, the Report was received, and made the special order for Wednesday afternoon.

WEDNESDAY, March 4.

The Special Order: The Report of the Court House Committee was called up and the same was read by the Clerk.

insert

Mr Sutherland moved to strike out the word five, before the word Commissioners, and three."

Mr. Weedman moved to amend the amendment by inserting "seven."

Pending the question, Judge Scott, on invitation, addressed the Board on the main question, and after remarks from Messrs. Sears, Bishop and others, the question was put on the amendment to the amendment, which was decided in the negative. The vote was then taken on the amendment, which was also decided in the negative.

Mr. Mahan then presented the following resolution, and offered it as an amendment to the Report, viz.:

Resolved, That the question of building a Court House and issuing bonds in accordance with the designs, specifications, and bids, as set forth in the report of the Court House Committee, be submitted to the legal voters of McLean County, at their annual town meeting to be held in April next.

The Chair decided the resolution out of order, on the ground that there was no law for submitting the building of a Court House to a vote of the people. Mr. Colman moved the previous question, which was sustained; and the main question was put. Whereupon Mr. Mahan called for the ayes and nays, which resulted in the adoption of the report by 14 ayes and 13 nays.

Those voting aye are as follows: Messrs. Bishop, Cuvelt, Colman, Elliott, Elijah Horr, Marquis, Newton, Rowell, George W. Stubblefield, Sears, Weaver, Weedman, Warford and Chairman Ives-14.

Those voting nay are as follows: Messrs. Cox, Ewins, Josiah Horr, Karr, Langstaff, Mahan, John Stubblefield, Sutherland, Saller, Jacob Smith, Shelton Smith, Vandolah and Wiley-13. Absent-Messrs. Lewis, Mitchell and Terpenning.

The Board selected the following Supervisors to act as Court House Commissioners : O. M. Colman, Elijah Horr, Richard Rowell, Nathan L. Sears and John Stubblefield. We have given the proceedings in full, by the Board, in passing the resolution upon the question of building a Court House, for several reasons. It was an important measure, considering the great expense, and the very heavy burdens to which the people had recently been subjected. There had been much discussion, and considerable feeling on the subject among the people, and the policy of erecting so expensive a building was questioned by many. The vote of the Board, as has been seen, was very close. But the result shows how ably the matter had been managed by a few resolute spirits; and the history of the enterprise has shown that the movement was all right.

But the best of it is to come yet. Keeping in mind the divided state of feeling at the time, that a County Court House, with its surroundings, costing $420,000, should be completed according to contract, in a very unfavorable year for building, and entirely paid for, without a growl from any quarter, nor a single imputation of swindle by anybody, we believe to be an occurrence without a parallel in the history of similar transactions. Look at Chicago, for instance, a city claiming to have a population twenty times that of Bloomington, quarreling for two years or more over the building of a Court House, like dogs and cats. Scarcely a week passes but the papers of that city denounce their incomplete, would-be Court House as an abortion, and the builders of it as swindlers. Yet, according to the population of Cook County compared with that of McLean County, its Court Honse, at a cost of more than $4,000,000, should be complete, and the finest in the Union. We might refer to other counties, but such "comparisons are odious." We are too happy in the fortunate results in our own county to make invidious comparisons with others. The whole subject may be justly regarded as a happy illustration of the spirit, the enterprise, and the magnanimity of the citizens of McLean County. They invite emulation, but they acknowledge no superiors in these respects.

The resolution authorizing the erection of a new Court House passed the Board of Supervisors in March. In April, the old Court House was torn down, and as soon as

the almost incessant rains would permit, the erection of a new one was commenced, and the magnificent structure, without a flaw, was pushed to completion. The amount of county orders issued in McLean County from September, 1867, to September, 1868, was $137,679.90.

The valuation of the property in McLean County, for county purposes, for the year 1868, was $10,235,918; and the amount of taxes levied for all purposes, the same year, was $441,876.93.

For the year 1869, the valuation of property in McLean County, for the purpose of taxation, was $10,703,695; and the amount of taxes levied for the same year was $578,805.41.

At the December term, the Board of Supervisors ordered the issue of County Bonds to the La Fayette, Bloomington & Mississippi Railroad Company, to pay a previous subscription to the stock of that Company, amounting to $20,000.

The valuation of property in McLean County as listed and assessed for 1873, amounted to $42,026,374; and the total amount of all taxes charged, $677,314.70. The total amount of taxation levied in McLean County for the year 1874 was $676,226.84.

But it is not our purpose here to give anything like a financial history of McLean County. A few disconnected items only are given, to indicate, in some degree, the extent of the material developments that have taken place in the county. When we commenced this hasty sketch, the county was almost uninhabited, and for some years the county revenue was about $1,000, more or less. The contract price for erecting the first Court House was three hundred and some odd dollars, and town lots in Bloomington were, for some years, nominally worth $5 a piece.

The county is now thickly settled in many parts, and land is worth from $25 to $50 per acre. In short, a county that has recently expended half a million of dollars in war expenses, and another half a million in the erection of public buildings, bridges, and other permanent improvements, besides heavy annual expenses paid, and yet is not in debt a single dollar; whose valuation of property for taxation purposes goes up into millions, and whose population can annually carry taxes amounting to more than half a million dollars, is an illustration of material development of which its citizens may well be proud.

REVIEW.

Thus have we taken a hasty glance at the material development of McLean County. In 1821, it was exclusively the home of the Indian, of the dwellers in prairie and grove, and of the fowls of the air. No echo responded to the blows of the woodman's ax; no waving fields of ripening grain swayed in the morning breezes; no glad shout of children just let loose from school; no shout of harvest-home; no grand and solemn organ's peal; no sweet and joyous tones of prayer and song, were borne upon the wings of the wind to listening ears and responsive hearts. It was oppressive stillness all, save the howl of the wolf, the scream of the eagle, or the still fiercer war-whoop of the red savages. The changes in fifty-eight years are very striking. McLean County, now the largest in the State, with a population of seventy thousand civilized inhabitants, presents very different features from those which prevailed at the former period. The following list of nativities, from the Census of 1870, will give a tolerably correct idea of the relative portions of the constituents in the composition of the present population: