Manufacturing in Union County had been moved from the homes to small
individually owned concerns by the time the Civil War was over. During the
following forty years an even greater change took place. Building was one of
the leading industries so that saw mills, brick kilns, etc., came into
being.
By this time flour was manufactured by steam and roller mills
and lime was manufactured from our large limestone deposits. To take care of
the barrelling of lime and flour, a cooperage plant was in operation.
In 1856 David Davie and Daniel Goodman were operating the largest and
most extensive mills in this part of the state, The Flora Temple mills. This
mill changed hands several times during the ensuing years. Other mills were
in operation during this period which manufactured less than 100 barrels of
flour per day.
In 1856, Jessie Lentz and James DeWitt built an
extensive wagon, plow and repair shop in Anna where they manufactured and
repaired wagons, plows and farm implements. Later on the Willoughby-Seger
wagon and repair shop was in business, also the Stokes Company. Since horses
were used for farm work these were among the leading businesses of the
county. In 1879, J. W. Dandridge started a saddle and harness factory here.
These businesses were of great importance in the community until the decade
following 1910 when motor driven vehicles replaced the older types of
conveyances, etc.
R. B. Stinson carried on an extensive barrel
factory near the railroad into Anna where he employed 30 men and
manufactured 50,000 barrels per year and other packages for shipping fruit
and vegetables. Later names connected with box factories were F. P. Anderson
and James Wood. At present three such factories are operating in the county,
the Randall L. Lawrence Box Factory in Cobden; the H. A. DuBois Box Mill in
Cobden, and the Fruit Growers Package Company in Jonesboro.
The firm
of Finch and Shick manufactured lime for commercial purposes manufacturing
as much as 300 barrels per day. In 1879 Hunsaker and Richardson, Edwards and
Carmack and J. E. Lufkin all had lime kilns.
In 1859, the Kirkpatrick
Brothers had a pottery where they manufactured all kinds of stoneware,
tiles, vases, pottery and fire brick. There has never been a pottery in
Union County since the death of W. Kirkpatrick who was an artist in this
line of work. No person sufficiently skilled in this art to carry on the
work has come to the locality since that pottery has gone out of existence.
M. M. Henderson and Son began a cotton gin in 1866 but there was not
sufficient need for this plant to enable it to stay in business so it was
later changed to a planing mill.
From 1865 to 1875, F. A. Childs and
Bro. had a drain tile factory in operation.
Unlike today with our
large packing house centers, the local supply of meat was killed and cured
within the community. Since the Anna State Hospital was located in Union
County, the demand for meat was large and the largest dealer in this
industry was M. V. Ussery. During the year July 1881 to July 1882, he
slaughtered 642 beeves, 156 sheep and 56 hogs and purchased 150 dressed hogs
which he resold. He sold 32,000 pounds of hides from these animals. While
the same general industries, namely agriculture and its subsidiary
enterprises still exist since 1900, many changes in manufacturing have come
into being.
With the use of more machinery and less hand work in
manufacturing, most of these industries have become concentrated into
industrial centers and finished products shipped into Union County to be
sold.
The Green Brick Yard was probably the last industry of its kind
in the community and it was discontinued because they could not manufacture
their products cheaply enough to compete with larger manufacturers.
As mentioned before, manufacturers of fruit packages have become jobbers or
retailers buying their stock from manufacturers in other centers.
Packing companies have moved to larger places and meat is distributed to
local dealers by these large companies.
Clothing is bought in
industrial centers by our retail merchants and the same is true of
manufactured foods.
The 1900 tax lists show that 139 persons were
taxed as manufacturers of various products. Of these only five, the Defiance
Box Co., W. P. Messier & Co., Bruchhauser Bros., T. A. Carlile, and the St.
Louis Stone and Lime Co., valued their machinery at over $1,000. Modern
manufacturing has shown another change also, that of individual ownership to
ownership by corporations or companies. The 1939 tax list shows that the
small manufacturer has completely disappeared in the county and only six
manufactures whose personal property is assessed at from $2,000 to $35,500.
These are the Anna Quarries, the Fruit Growers Package Company of Jonesboro,
The Fruit Growers Package Co. of Anna, the International Shoe Company, the
Phoenix Flour Mills and the Atlas Powder Company.
The Anna Quarries
has grown to large proportions since the beginning of the better road
program in Illinois. It manufactures crushed rock, lime and building stone
made from a very high grade of limestone of which there is a large deposit
where the plant is located.
While there were several mills in the
county in the past, the only one remaining is the Phoenix Flour Mills. It is
interesting to consider that much flour and feed is shipped into Union
County for consumption from mills as far away as Minneapolis and Kansas
City.
The Atlas Powder Company is located in the northwest part of
the county near Wolf Lake. It is located in this spot because of its
isolation rather than any other reason. It manufactures explosives used
mainly in mining and all materials used in its products are shipped into the
plant to be mixed. None are produced locally. Most of the people of the
village of Wolf Lake earn a livelihood at this plant and its employees are
probably the highest paid people in the county due to the hazards of the
work and the skill necessary to produce the powder, etc.
The
International Shoe Company is located in Anna, Illinois. It was placed here
when the community raised funds to provide a building for the company. Five
hundred people are employed here and few of them work less than eleven
months each year. The salaries are in keeping with those of other such
industries but it can be generally stated that each of the five hundred
employees earns a living wage which is in keeping with the general standard
of living of the county. During 1940 an addition to the factory is to be
completed which will employ an additional 150 persons.
During the
World War period kaolin was taken from the Mt. Glen area in large quantities
and shipped to users in other parts of the country. Since that time a small
amount of clay has been shipped away but now plans are complete for a kaolin
mill which will refine the clay which will in turn be sold to manufacturers
of rubber tires, pottery, stoneware, whitewash, high grade tile, paper
filling and coating, linoleum, oil cloth, paint of all kinds, cement, fire
bricks, foundries, steel manufacturing, asbestos, enameling, and other clay
products. Large deposits of the highest grade of kaolin clay are available
in this area and the company expects to install a $75,000 plant which will
employ about fifty people.
In 1939 the Vulcan Heel Co. put a factory
in Anna which employs an average of seventy-five persons annually in much
the same manner the International Shoe Company employs its help.
There are still natural resources in the county which are not in use such as
silica, fluorspar, possibly oil and many building materials.
The early development of schools has been discussed in a previous chapter.
There is no record available in Union County showing just when public
schools became prevalent in the County. The "Jonesboro Gazette" published an
article advocating improving public schools in 1850 but it is definitely
known that private schools and subscription schools were in existence even
after 1900.
In 1866, 53 teacher's certificates were recorded in the
County records. They were for Sarilda Houser, D. E. Gallegly, Mary A.
Anderson, William G. Riser, Elizabeth F. Sams, John A. Treese, Solomon R.
Turney, John Mowery, Amanda McElfresh, William C. Lence, Samantha Rich,
Francis Marion Reed, James P. Baggott, W. C. Moreland, Thomas W. Ferril,
Thomas J. Plater, Luella Barlow, Olive Love, L. T. Linnell, E. Caveness,
John W. Tracy, Hezekiah A. Jones, W. S. Day, P. S. Vancil, Albert C.
Rossiter, Thomas L. Bailey, Wilson Brown, Kate King, Lafayette Corgan,
Edward Lipe, Benjamin Babcock, O. P. Hill, Came Mitchell, Maggie E. Doyle,
W. P. Jones, John H. Horine, Augusta E. Swain, Eva Kratzinger, C. W.
Collins, Ellen E. Dodson, John S. Millikin, Maggie Clark, Laura Walker, John
F. Little, P. M. Hagler, George B. Boomer, James B. Roberts, Lecher Lott,
George Barringer, Elijah Miller, R. T. Rines, E. P. Harris and Joseph A.
Coker.
These people were listed as being natives of almost all parts
of the United States so that the school children of Union County were
getting a varied type of culture.
The earliest annual school report
available, that of the school year 1886 and 1887 showed that 6645 children
in the county between the ages of six and twenty-one, 5492 were enrolled in
public schools. There were 70 ungraded schools and 8 graded schools at that
time and 131 teachers. There were two brick school building, 65 frame
buildings and 10 log buildings in use that year for school houses. Twelve
were built during the year. The average wage of the male teachers was $48
per month and that of female teachers was $31 per month.
Taxes
amounting to $22,896.39 were levied for school purposes and school property
was valued at $61,780.00 with $365 invested in libraries and $15.99 in
school apparatus.
The school district treasurers that year were W. S.
Gallegly, Lick Creek; J. H. Boswell, Mt. Pleasant; W. W. Karraker, Dongola;
A. J. Miller, Cobden; M. V. Eaves, Anna; Jasper A. Dillow, Dongola; Napoleon
B. Collins, Alto Pass; Fred W. Metzger. Jonesboro; Levi A. Dillow,
Springville; Calvin A. Smith, Cobden; Arthur A. Brown, Jonesboro; O. P.
Baggott, Jonesboro; and John Wilkins, Grand Tower.
In 1900, of 7801
people between the ages of six and twenty-one, 5512 were enrolled in the
public schools. At that time the length of the school year had been extended
to six months or more and there was only one school in the County which was
in session for a shorter period of time. There were 67 ungraded schools and
10 graded schools in the county. There were three high schools established
by that time. Four of the school buildings were brick, seventy-three were
frame and one was log. Only one new building was erected during that year.
There were two private schools, Union Academy and the parochial school
in Cobden having 92 pupils and five teachers in the county in 1900.
In the public schools there were 112 teachers, the highest salaried man
being paid $100 per month. The lowest salaried man was paid $25, the highest
salaried woman, $40 per month and the lowest salaried woman $20 per month.
Teachers who had graduated from the Southern Illinois Normal University
were Daniel B. Fager, Joseph Gray, Mattie O. Alexander, Henry W. Karraker
and Maggie Bryden. Teachers who were teaching but still attending the Normal
were W. A. Wall, Taylor Dodd and Thomas J. Anderson. The other teachers had
not attended college but had obtained their certificate by examination.
The tax levy for school purposes in 1900 was $35,277.25 as compared with
$22,896.39 in 1866. The value of school property had increased to $80,080
with $931.80 invested in libraries and $4374 in apparatus. The fonded
indebtedness was $11,790.
There were three four year high schools in
the county, one supervised by Anson L. Bliss, an eight month school, where
the teachers were paid an average wage of $40.83 per month and the cost of
maintaining the school was $19.62 per pupil; one by John W. Jenkins, a seven
month school where the teachers were paid an average of $62.50 per month and
the cost for maintaining the school was $19.89 per pupil and a third taught
by William L. Toler, a seven month school where the per capita cost per
pupil was $34.91 per year.
In 1937 the total number of pupils
enrolled in public schools was 4,349, a decrease since 1900 which is in the
same proportion as the decrease in population. 915 of these pupils were
enrolled in high schools. There were about 131 teachers in the county as
compared with 112 in 1900 and all but seven had training above a four year
high school. Thirty-one had bachelor degrees and two had masters degrees.
The salaries ranged between $400 and $1400 per year with one exception which
was a salary between $2200 to $2400 per year in elementary schools and in
high schools only one teacher was paid less than $1000 and the others all
received between $1000 and $1600 per year except one who received between
$2700 and $3000 per year. This made an average annual salary in the county
of $997.42 or more than $100 per month.
$195,499 in taxes were levied
for school purposes in 1936. The districts owned school property valued at
$593,800 with $104,245 worth of library equipment and school apparatus. The
bonded indebtedness of all the districts was $152,000.
In 1937 there
was only one private school in the county, the parochial school in Cobden
which had 38 pupils and three teachers.
There were 78 schools in
Union County in 1937 and no new ones were erected.
The enrollment of
pupils in high schools has increased over
40 per cent during the last
ten years and the number of tuition pupils in high school during that period
has increased over 80 per cent.
Over the rural schools is a county
superintendent of schools who is elected by a vote of te people. At present
Russell D. Rendleman holds the position. He coordinates the work of the
schools in the county and is quite active in state organizations.
During the past year the health program which he sponsors had made rapid
strides in progress. Medical and dental examinations have been provided for
all pupils and if defects are found, the pupil is advised to go to his
personal physician or dentist. The work was accomplished through the
cooperation of the County Medical Society, all dentists in the county,
approximately twenty-five volunteer workers, the National Youth
Administration, the Anna City School Nurse, nurses from near-by counties,
the County Superintendent of Schools and the County School Nurse.
3765 children were examined and 2021 were found to have defects. Of these
defects 1505 were throat defects, 302 gland defects, 2S0 trachoma suspects,
131 nose defects, 80 nutrition defects, 79 nose defects, 71 athlete foot, 65
skin defects, 57 posture defects,
41 thyroid defects, 38 lung
defects, 29 orthopedic defects, 22 nervous defects and mental defects and 18
scalp defects.
A comprehensive health program is planned for 1940 and
1941.
Contributed 11 Sep 2017 by Norma Hass, extracted from History of Union County, by Lulu Leonard, published in 1941.
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