Our Bicentennial series on the history of Pekin continues this week with the account of how Pekin became an incorporated city. In addition to this year being the 200th anniversary of the arrival of Pekin’s first settler Jonathan Tharp, this August will mark 175 years since Pekin’s vote to incorporate as a city under Illinois law in 1849.
Prior to Pekin’s achieving city status, only nine municipalities in Illinois had incorporated as cities. Before telling the story of Pekin’s incorporation as a city, let’s first scan a wider vista and take an overview of the incorporated municipalities of Illinois.
The city of Pekin is just one of 1,299 Illinois incorporated municipalities, of which there are three kinds: villages, towns, and cities. Given the usual definitions of those terms, one might assume that the kind of municipality depends on population and geographical size – villages being little, towns being mid-sized, cities being largest. But size has almost nothing to do with it.
For example, Melrose Park near Chicago is a village, but has a population of about 24,000, while the southern Illinois municipality of Nason in Jefferson County is a city, but has only 198 residents, making it the smallest city in Illinois. Meanwhile, both Topeka in Mason County, population 57, and Normal in McLean County, population 53,594, are towns. The largest town in Illinois is Cicero, population 83,161, and the smallest town is Bentley in Hancock County, population 28.
The kind of municipality isn’t a matter of size. Rather, they are three forms of municipal government. The main difference is that villages and towns are governed by boards of trustees, while cities are governed by mayors and city councils. The city form of government may be aldermanic, commission, or mayor/managerial.
Remarkably, there are only three counties in Illinois that have no cities: Calhoun County, which has only five villages, all incorporated in the 1880s and 1890s; Henderson County, which has only eight villages; and Putnam County, which has only six villages.
But Tazewell County has five cities: Pekin, incorporated 21 Aug. 1849; Washington, first incorporated 10 Feb. 1857; East Peoria (formerly called Hilton), first incorporated 1 July 1884; Delavan, first incorporated 17 April 1888, and the youngest of our county’s cities, Marquette Heights, incorporated 27 June 1956.
The 1870 Illinois constitution eliminated the option of “town” as a possible choice when a settlement opts for incorporation, so afterwards there could be no new towns. Many Illinois municipalities started out as villages or towns, later adopting a city form of government, but many have remained villages and a few – only 19 – have decided to stick with their original town charters. Most municipalities (including Pekin) re-incorporated under the 1872 general law of incorporation.
Under current incorporation law, a locale must have at least 200 people to incorporate as a village and at least 2,500 to incorporate as a city. Even if the population later shrinks, the municipality need not give up its form of government, but the choice to unincorporate is sometimes made when a municipality declines.
Most of Illinois’ municipalities were established after Illinois became a state in 1818, but a few settlements were incorporated when Illinois was a territory – and Illinois’ earliest incorporated settlement was Kaskaskia, the former territorial capital and first state capital, which received its original town charter from King Louis XV of France in 1725 during the colonial period.
Almost a year before Illinois statehood, Kaskaskia was incorporated as a town on 6 Jan. 1818. The following year the state capital was moved to Vandalia, and poor abandoned Kaskaskia eventually was almost completely destroyed by a flood in April 1881, when the Mississippi River changed its course. The 2000 federal census showed only 17 people left in the bayou that is all that remains of the first state capital.
Another Illinois city, Golconda in Pope County, was already around by 1816 when Pope County was established. Originally called Sarahsville, the residents opted for the name “Golconda” on 24 Jan. 1817, and they received a town charter on 1 March 1845, becoming a city some time later. Thus, one must not interpret the date of incorporation as the same as the date of founding, because usually a community or settlement existed for several years, even a long time, before finally incorporating.
Of those municipalities that later became cities, Pekin was the 17th municipality to be incorporated since Illinois became a territory — but the earliest one of them to become an incorporated municipality was Shawneetown in Gallatin County, which became a village on 8 Dec. 1814, a town on 27 Feb. 1847, and a city on 22 Feb. 1861.
Old Pekin historical publications say Pekin was the 10th incorporated city in Illinois, a claim that can be confirmed by consulting Illinois state records and old published county histories.
The very first incorporated city in Illinois was Cairo in Alexander County, which was granted a city charter on 9 Jan. 1818. In those days, however, Cairo was really only a city on paper. The site was chosen for a city because, as the charter states, the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was thought an economically auspicious location. In those days, there seemed little grounds to hope for prosperity in a city on the shores of Lake Michigan (the railroad was still a new invention, and the St. Lawrence Seaway was yet future), and Illinois depended on the Mississippi for the movement of people and goods. Nevertheless, no one would be interested in living in the planned and platted city of Cairo for many more years to come. A new settlement at the site was founded in the 1830s, and so Cairo was given a second city charter on 4 March 1837.
If not for Cairo’s 1818 charter, the honor of being Illinois’ first incorporated city would go to (where else?) Chicago, which became a city on 4 March 1837, the same date as Cairo’s second charter. Chicago was originally incorporated as a town on 12 Aug. 1833. Coming in close behind Chicago as Illinois’ third city is Alton in Madison County, which incorporated as a city on 31 July 1837 (but became a town before Chicago did, on 30 Jan. 1821).
The fourth and fifth cities of Illinois were Quincy and Springfield, but were incorporated by the Illinois General Assembly on the same day, 3 Feb. 1840. Springfield, which incorporated as a town on 2 April 1832, had recently been designated as Illinois’ third state capital. It officially received its city charter on 6 April 1840.
Illinois’ sixth incorporated city was Nauvoo in Hancock County, which served as the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) until the Mormon War. Nauvoo became a city on 1 Feb. 1841.
Next in order came Galena in Jo Daviess County, the home of President Ulysses S. Grant, which was incorporated as a town on 7 Jan. 1835. The path that Galena was forced to take to acquire its first city charter was marred by political tumult and controversy involving a runaway town board. The General Assembly approved a city charter for Galena on 15 Feb. 1839, stipulating that the Galena town board had to place the proposed charter before their residents for a vote. The board members, however, usurped the role of the State Supreme Court and claimed some of the charter’s provisions were unconstitutional. Flouting state law, the board passed a resolution declaring that they would never obey the law requiring them to hold a town referendum on the charter. Legal action immediately ensued, leading to the state’s high court issuing a writ of mandamus (Latin, “we command”) on 16 Nov. 1840, ordering the Galena board to let their constituents vote on the charter. The board again rebelled. The scandal finally was ended by the exasperated people of Galena themselves, who voted out the old board on 5 April 1841. The new board members immediately agreed to hold the vote on the charter, which was approved by a vote of 196-34 on 26 April 1841. So Galena finally became a city. (The full account of Galena’s tortuous path to cityhood may be read in H. F. Kett’s 1878 History of Jo Daviess County.)
After the fireworks of Galena’s city charter battle, Peoria much more quietly became the eighth incorporated city in Illinois on 21 April 1845. Almost four years elapsed until Illinois got its ninth city: Rock Island, incorporated on 12 Feb. 1849. It was only six months later, in August of 1849, that Pekin voted to adopt a city charter, making Pekin the 10th incorporated city in Illinois.
Though the story of Pekin’s city incorporation isn’t anywhere near as dramatic as Galena’s, it wasn’t entirely free of problems.
We have previously recalled here at “From the History Room” the very curious fact that the actual vote to incorporate as a Town, and its date, are not mentioned in William H. Bates’ 1870 history of Pekin. It turns out that for some reason the incorporation vote was not legally recorded. That omission made it necessary for Pekin’s officials to ask the Illinois General Assembly to retroactively legalize the incorporation of the Town of Pekin, which the General Assembly did by a special act passed on 19 Jan. 1837.
The wording of “An act to legalize the incorporation of Pekin” (See “Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois 1836-37,” pages 3-4) explains that “the citizens of the town of Pekin, in the county of Tazewell, did, on the second day of July, A. D. 1835, meet and determine, by vote, that they would become incorporated, according to the provisions of an act entitled ‘An act to incorporate such towns as may wish to be incorporated,’ approved March 1st, 1831.” Nevertheless, “by accident or mistake, the certified statement of the polls of said meeting was lost and have (sic – has) not been filed and recorded in the clerk’s office of the county commissioners’ court in said county as the said act directs.”
The act then goes on to declare that the town of Pekin shall not be considered to be an illegally incorporated town – i.e., no one would be prosecuted or sued over what had happened, nor would the Town Board be disbanded. The act retroactively “declared legal and valid” all of the official acts of Pekin’s board of trustees since 2 July 1835. Finally, the town of Pekin was “hereby declared an incorporated town under the above recited act, any omission or mistake in the incorporation of said town to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Consequently, although the people of Pekin intended to incorporate on 2 July 1835, in point of law Pekin did not really become an incorporated town until 19 Jan. 1837, at which point the unwittingly illegal acts of the Town Board of Pekin were retroactively legalized by the General Assembly.
Jumping ahead 11½ years to Pekin’s decision to incorporate as a City, we find that William H. Bates’ 1870 history of Pekin notes that in 1849, prior to Pekin becoming a City, the Illinois General Assembly agreed to move the county seat from Tremont back to Pekin. Bates then says that on 7 Aug. 1849, the Town Board, convened by Town Board President William S. Maus, approved a resolution to take a census of Pekin “preparatory to city organization under the general act of incorporation allowing towns of fifteen hundred inhabitants the privilege of adopting the Springfield or Quincy charters if a majority of the inhabitants, upon due notice, vote in favor of it.” (As mentioned above, Springfield and Quincy had themselves both received their city charters from the Illinois General Assembly on 3 Feb. 1840.)
Only two days later, on 9 Aug. 1849, the census results were reported to the board, and, having found that Pekin contained at least 1,500 people, it was “ordered that two weeks’ notice, to be published in the ‘Mirror,’ for an election, to be held on the 20th of August, 1849, to vote for or against the City of Pekin.” According to Bates, the vote to incorporate was unanimous.
After that vote, Pekin’s next steps would have been to record the census and vote results, to notify the State of Illinois, and to hold a mayoral and city council election. Upon verifying that Pekin had fulfilled all of the stipulations of the law governing the incorporation of cities, the Illinois General Assembly would then issue Pekin a city charter that matched those of Quincy and Springfield. Pekin’s first city election took place on 24 Sept. 1849, when Bernard Bailey was elected as Pekin’s first mayor, heading a council of four aldermen: John Atkinson, David Kenyon, William Maus, and Jacob Riblet. (Maus, incidentally, was one of the town’s doctors, and he had attended to the sick during the scarlet fever epidemic that raged in Pekin in 1843-1844. He had previously treated Pekin’s cholera victims during the July 1834 epidemic.)
Most remarkably, however, a search of the acts of the Illinois General Assembly for the years 1849 and 1850 turns up no trace of a city charter being issued to Pekin following the 20 Aug. 1849 vote.
It is not until 24 Jan. 1851 that the General Assembly passed “An act to approve and extend the corporate powers of the city of Pekin” – the sort of bill by which the General Assembly approved the incorporation of cities, towns, and villages, and granted cities their charters.
Why the unusual delay in the granting of Pekin’s charter? The answer can be divined from Section 1 of this act, which says (emphasis added):
“Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:
“SEC. 1. That all the acts of the president and trustees of the town of Pekin, in the county of Tazewell, and the inhabitants thereof, in adopting and organizing the said town of Pekin into the city of Pekin, under the act of 1849 regulating towns and cities, and all the acts of the officers of said city of Pekin done and performed by virtue of said city authority, shall be and the same are hereby completely and fully legalized, ratified, confirmed and approved, the same as though the said city of Pekin had been duly incorporated by said act of 1849 regulating towns and cities, with all the powers and authority of the cities of Springfield and Quincy; and said city of Pekin shall, in all things, have and enjoy all the powers and authority conferred by law on said cities of Springfield and Quincy.”
The words in boldface imply that for some reason, the City of Pekin was not duly incorporated in 1849 despite the acts that the Pekin Town Board had taken that year to organize Pekin as an incorporated city. Therefore, just as in 1837, the Illinois General Assembly once again had to retroactively legalize an act of incorporation for Pekin.
But why was it necessary for the General Assembly to retroactively legalize Pekin’s incorporation as a city?
Unfortunately we can only speculate and guess about that. The 1837 retroactive legalization very helpfully spelled out what Pekin had failed to do in 1835 – namely, record the incorporation vote tally of 2 July 1835. But in this case, the General Assembly’s act of 24 Jan. 1851 does not inform us why Pekin was not, contrary to its intention, duly incorporated in 1849.
Was it that Pekin had again failed to record the incorporation vote, just as in 1837? Was there a question about whether or not Pekin’s population was really at least 1,500 persons? Had someone in the town government of Pekin failed to notify the State of Illinois that Pekin had voted to become to city? Did the cholera epidemic of 1849 disrupt the usual functioning of municipal and state operations?
Whatever the reason, the historical record shows that both times Pekin sought to incorporate, errors were made that invalidated the incorporation and made it necessary for the General Assembly to approve a retroactive legalization.
And just as William H. Bates and the later standard published histories of Pekin do not mention the 1837 legalization of Pekin’s incorporation as a town, so too they breathe nary a word about the 1851 legalization of Pekin’s incorporation as a city. Perhaps some historical details are a little too embarrassing and complicated to be remembered.
Of course since the 1851 legalization was retroactive, this means Pekin did not have to wait until 1951 to celebrate 100 years as a city – so we can keep our historic 1949 Pekin Centenary books.
Next week, we’ll tell the story of Pekin’s first mayor, Bernard Bailey.
