General Asahel Gridley
Legal Cohort of Abraham
Lincoln
By
Thomas Boslooper, PhD.
1993
PREFACE
With the revival of studies of Abraham
Lincoln following the discoveries in the summer of 1993 of caches of
his papers in various building in Illinois there has been along with
the renewed interest in Lincoln studies a perceived need for
re-evaluation of his legacy.
What is presented in this document is
data on the life of General Asahel Gridley of Bloomington, Illinois,
who was one of fourteen lawyers who was associated with Lincoln.
This fact is hardly known since many biographers of Lincoln make no
reference to Gridley and others refer only to bizarre incidents in
the Lincoln-Gridley relationship.
Most startling is the revelation in one
biography of Lincoln by Dr. Robert H. Browne that General Asahel
Gridley was the man who engineered the nomination of Abraham Lincoln
as the Republican candidate for the presidency at the Convention in
Chicago in 1860. Although there are more than forty references to
Gridley in Browne’s book on Lincoln along with detailed accounts of
their dealings with each other, there is no recognition of this
either in other biographies of Lincoln or in the traditions about
Gridley in his home town, Bloomington.
The failure of historians to recognize
Dr. Browne’s two volume work Abraham Lincoln and the Man of His
Time. 1901 and 1907, may stem from two sources: the tradition
established by them that Judge David Davis was primarily responsible
for Lincoln’s nomination, and the obscurity of Dr. Robert H.
Browne. Since historians have not been able to identify him, he,
along with Gridley, have been dismissed from Lincolnians.
Currently Asahel Gridley is a
forgotten figure in Bloomington. A statue of him present by his
daughter in 1931 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his
arrival in Bloomington and which stood in the center of the Rotunda
of the Court House has been moved down the center of the Rotunda of
the Court House has been moved down a side hall into a dimly lit area
where he stands unnoticed and unrecognized. What was the Court House
is now the McLean County Historical Society.
This is ironic, since what was once
the Court House is now the McLean County Historical Society, and
General Asahel Gridley was among the principal contributors to the
history and development of McLean County and Bloomington, Illinois.
At his death in 1881 he
was the sole resident of Bloomington who had lived and worked there
continuously for fifty years.
Asahel Gridley was
responsible for making McLean a large county.
He was instrumental in
starting McLean County’s first newspaper, first bank, and first
telegraph office.
Asahel Gridley managed
to have major railroads come to Bloomington.
Gridley took over
Bloomington’s failing Gas-works and successfully managed it for the
benefit of the community.
He was a benefactor of
three churches: Baptist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic.
He was a leader of the
Abolitionists’ cause and in the formation of the Republican Party
in Illinois.
Lincoln worked with
Gridley in Gridley’s office in Bloomington, and when Gridley gave
up his law practice, he turned his office over to Lincoln. Meanwhile
Lincoln was a frequent guest of General Asahel and Mary A. E.
Gridley.
He was recognized as one
of the leaders in development of Central Illinois, McLean County, and
Bloomington.
Asahel Gridley was well
reported on in The Good Old Days in McLean County (1874), The
History of McLean County (1879) and in his Obituary in January of
1881.
How could such a man
have been forgotten?
Out of research on this
question come these observations.
A lore developer
about him that was perpetuated among the populace that he was a
coward, profane, unreligious and greedy. This lore was perpetuated
by journalistic accounts of his life without regard for the
historical context and facts of his life.
No biography based
on historical investigation has been written on the life of General
Asahel Gridley to counteract the lore perpetuated by popular gossip
and journalism.
Since historiography
is selective and political, General Asahel Gridley being late in
life a non-political figure was overshadowed by men of high
political profile such as David Davis who was Judge of the Eighth
Circuit Court District of Illinois, Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court of the U.S., and a United States Senator.
The negative popular
lore on Gridley was established in 1979 by the publication in The
Illinois Magazine of an article by Alice M. Schlenker.
Schlenker made little use of historical accounts, and although she
is known to have made a casual inquiry in Kirksville, Missouri about
Dr. Robert H. Browne, she took no note on Browne’s account of
Gridley from his biography on Lincoln.
Dr. Robert H. Brown
has been overlooked by historians as a biographer of Lincoln and
thus as a source for an historical perspective on General Asahel
Gridley.
Brown commented in
the “Preface to the Second Revised Edition” of his biography of
Lincoln (1907) on “the widespread and generous reception of his
work” (First Edition, 1901) and spoke of “volumes which he
(Browne) expects will soon be published.” These were to be books
on the Civil War. Browne died in 1909. The books were not
published. Subsequently since Browne’s two volumes work on
Lincoln turned out to be his sole publication, he was soon forgotten
as an author.
Consequently, the establishment of the identity and credibility Dr.
Robert H. Browne becomes basic to the restoration of General Asahel
Gridley as a key figure in the development of Central Illinois,
McLean County and Bloomington, Illinois.
Dr. Robert H. Browne will be seen as a young man with an excellent
background and education, a close associate of both Gridley and
Lincoln, an organizer of the Republican Party in Illinois, a man with
an earned degree from the Rush Medical College in Chicago, a
practicing physician in Mahomet, Illinois, an Assistant Surgeon and
Surgeon through the Civil War, a physician in Champaign, Illinois and
Kirksville, Missouri, a Missouri State Senator who was behind
legislation that furthered the cause of education, and an organizer
of a Masonic Lodge, a post commander of the Grand Army of the
Republic, and an organizer of the Methodist Church in Kirksville,
Missouri. He will also be seen to have been a courageous man who
served in the Civil War even while suffering from a disability, and
who maintained his political and medical career with the same
disorder.
This document intends to provide historians with the identity and
credibility of Dr. Robert H. Browne and at the same time with data
that will help to restore General Asahel Gridley as a man who should
be well remembered in Bloomington, Ill., McLean County, Ill., the
State of Illinois, as well as in the history of this nation.
During the year 1993 Mr. Doug Williams of Mid-Illinois Title
Services, Inc. in Bloomington began the restoration of this building
to its original state - - as it was when the building was the McLean
County Bank, founded by Asahel Gridley. This work will be completed
in the fall of 1994.
Possibly this document during the same year 1994 will help to bring
General Asahel Gridley out of the shadows and out from the sidelines
and restore him to his proper place as a central figure in his
community, his country, his state, and his country.
ASAHEL GRIDLEY
Of
BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS
(1810 - 1881)
Asahel Gridley was born on April 26,
1810 in the vicinity of Casenovia, New York, the son of Asahel and
Elizabeth Percival Gridley. Asahel’s father, Asahel Gridley, Sr.,
was born in Kensington, Conn. On 30 March 1765 and married Elizabeth
Percival of New Durham, Conn., who was born on 11 April 1766.
Asahel, Jr.’s father died when he was four. His mother died when
he was fifteen. He was educated in a little red brick schoolhouse
and then at the Pompey Hill Academy in Casenovia, N.Y. He walked
five miles to school.
Asahel Gridley’s heritage is long
and distinguished. His earliest known ancestor, Albertus Greslet,
was of Viking background and came to England with William the
Conqueror in the Norman Conquest and fought in the Battle of Hastings
in 1066 C.E. In the division of land following the Norman Conquest
Albertus Greslet came to be in charge of manors in Blackburn and was
later assigned Manchester. He also held lands in Norfolk, Lincoln,
and Suffolk. From the 11th to the 14th
centuries his direct descendents were known as “the Barons of
Manchester,” and one of which - - Robert De Greidley - - was one of
the barons who pressured King John into producing the Charter of
Liberties and was present on June 15, 1215 at Runymede for the
signing of the Magna Carta.
By the time fourteen generations had
passed Thomas Gridley was born on 10 April 1612, the son of Thomas
Gridley and Elizabeth Clarke, at Ashen in Essex.
In 1633 Thomas Gridley (b. 1612) came
from Braintree in England to America to Dorchester, Mass. on the ship
“Griffin” when he departed from Boston with Rev. Thomas Hooker’s
company to found Hartford, Conn. However, Thomas Gridley left
Hartford briefly for Windsor in 1637. He returned to Hartford and
was one of the proprietors of Hartford in 1640. Thomas Gridley is
considered to have been a Founder of Windsor and a Founder of
Hartford, Connecticut.
On September 29, 1644 Thomas Gridley
married Mary Seymour (1620 – 1689+). Thomas and Mary had three
children: Samuel, b 26 Nov 1647, Thomas b. 1 Aug 1650, and Mary b. 29
Sep 1652. Following her husband’s death in 1655 Mary Seymour
Gridley married John Lanchton (Langdon) of Farmington.
The sons Samuel and
Thomas became prominent in Farmington, together running a general
store and blacksmith shop.
Asahel Gridley was a descendent of
Thomas Gridley, Jr. (1650 – 1742) and his wife Elizabeth Clark (ca.
1633 – 1695), Thomas Jr. and Elizabeth had eleven offspring, the
fifth of which was Samuel Gridley (1666 – 1772) after whose second
marriage to Rebecca Chamberlain (1686 - ?) he moved to Kensington,
Conn. Where son clement Gridley (1732 – 1822) was born. Clement
married Sarah Hubbard on 25 Dec 1755. Following the Revolutionary
War, Clement and his wife moved with their eight children to New York
State and settled in Manlius, a few miles northwest of Casenovia,
N.Y.
Asahel Gridley,
Sr., (1765 – 1814) was the fourth child of clement Gridley and his
wife Sarah Hubbard. Asahel Gridley, Jr., (1810 – 1881) was the
fourth child of Asahel Gridley, Sr., and his wife Elizabeth Percival
(Appendix III). His elder brother Timothy (1690 - ?) became renowned
for farming at Fayetteville, N.Y., a tradition which has been
maintained by his descendents at the same site until the present day.
Timothy’s son Daniel Webster Gridley had son Timothy and grandson
Timothy, both of whom were physicians. The latter Timothy had a son
Timothy who currently is an international business entrepreneur and
resides in Connecticut. Asahel’s younger brother George Washington
Gridley (1817 -1861) distinguished himself by establishing a 30,000
acre ranch with 20,000 sheep north of Sacramento, California, a
tradition which his sons carried into Idaho. The town of Gridley,
California now is at the original ranch-site. Outside the town two
hundred plus acres remain farmed by a descendent of Asahel Gridley’s
brother George Washington Gridley. Descendents of George W. are
currently numerous in Idaho and in the San Francisco Bay area of
California. Several are in the real estate business. (See p. 97)
At the age of 10, Asahel Gridley quit
school at the Pompey Hill Academy, presumably because he hated it,
and went to work in a dry goods store. He was industrious and saved
his money. At the age of 21 he decided to seek his fortune in the
west. In 1831 he received a $1500 inheritance from his father, and a
friend gave him a horse. He headed westward to Chicago, where he was
offered one of the finest pieces of property in the area in exchange
for his horse, but water and swampy land seemed to be everywhere, so
he kept on going until he came to the rich, black soil of what is now
Bloomington, Ill., which at the time consisted of little more than a
crossing of Indian trails. Gridley arrived in Bloomington on October
8, 1831. One tradition has it that Asahel came to Bloomington at the
urging of his sister. There he set up a mercantile business. In the
early years he rode on horseback to St. Louis and purchased all kinds
of supplies at the famous Warburton & King House. Occasionally
he wagoned his goods from St. Louis to Bloomington, and at other
times his goods were shipped by steamboat from St. Louis to Pekin,
Ill. and then wagoned on to Bloomington.
Eventually Asahel made visits twice a
year to Philadelphia and New York City to purchase goods. Jesse Fell
wrote: “The ordinary way of travel to and from the East at that
time was by steamboats on the Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
to Pittsburgh, and thence by stage across the mountains to
Philadelphia and New York. Not infrequently the whole trip there and
back, particularly in the winter season, was performed by stage. It
was my good fortune to accompany the General during one of these
winter trips by stage, and I shall never forget the hilarity and
sport of that memorable trip. We had in company a Missourian as
distinguished for his geniality, mirthfulness and fund of anecdotes
as the General himself, possibly even more so, and we were never and
a loss for something to relieve what would otherwise have been not
only a cold but tedious, monotonous trip.”
Asahel was in business with Ortogrul
Covell from 1831 – 1838. Ortogrul was the husband of Juliette
Enos, who was born in Onondaga County, N.Y. on 28 Jun 1818(?) and
died on 29 Apr 1863 in Bloomington. Ortogrul and Juliette were
married in 1837. He was born in 1809 and died 23 Sep 1846.
Following Ortogrul’s death Juliette on 4 Oct 1848 married Capt.
Simon Brown. Juliette has sons James (b. 1840),), George F. (b.
1844), and Charles V. (b. 1846) by Ortogrul Covell.
For eight years Gridley and Covell
sold hardware, queens ware, groceries, medicines, liquor, salt, iron
nails, harness and saddles, and everything farmers needed. Gridley’s
store was one of the first three in Bloomington, the others where
owned and operated by Allin and Merritt L. Covell. Allin’s store
was at the corner of Main and Front streets. Gridley’s store was
on the opposite corner. Deerskins, coonskins and wolf-robes were
important articles of commerce. In the stores these articles along
with beeswax and honey were the most common payment for purchases
made by the farmers.
According to Jesse Fell, Gridley’s
customers extended over the whole county, then embracing nearly
double the territory it covered at the time of his writing. Fell
also mentioned: “The ordinary mode of doing business at this time
was on credit, the people paying their store bills annually on
Christmas, or on the first of January.”
In his early days in Bloomington
Asahel Gridley resided with James Allin and his family. The
community had its “formal” beginning on July 4, 1831, at which
time lots were sold. The lots had been laid out in June. Upon
Gridley’s arrival in Bloomington, he purchased a lot for $51 from
someone who paid $60 at the July 4 bidding. Proceeds of the land
sale on July 4 amounted to $3000, which was used to build the
courthouse on land which James Allin donated. On March 6, 1832
Gridley bid $339.75 for the erection of the courthouse, which was
built according to contract, and accepted by the Court in December of
1832.
“Between Allin and
Gridley commenced an active acquaintance and friendship…for the
next thirty years or more, took such a prominent part in the fortunes
of this thriving town, as well as in those of the whole county. From
the very first year of its existence he (Gridley) has been one of the
foremost in all enterprises that promised the good of Bloomington.
Being of an active, sanguine temperament, quick to perceive, he has
generally been a leader in all undertakings – giving liberally of
his means, arguing with the doubtful, pushing forward the slow and
timid, carrying every one onward with his magnetic enthusiasm until
success should crown the effort. Bloomington owes this gentleman a
debt of gratitude that should be remembered to its latest
generations.”
During that same year, 1832, Asahel
Gridley served as a grand juror.
Shortly thereafter Asahel Gridley
served at First Lieutenant of Company I, a cavalry company of Capt.
Merritt L. Covell, and under the command of Major Stillman, during
the Black Hawk War of 1832. Abraham Lincoln was a Captain of another
company in the Black Hawk War. Gridley saw action; whereas, Lincoln
did not. Each received an honorable discharge. Gridley’s
reputation in the Black Hawk War, however , was later tainted by his
citizens from McLean County who reported that in a battle in the
Black Hawk War 275 men from McLean County against 40 Indians Gridley
was reputed to have sent out the cry that they were surrounded by a
thousand Indians. There was a panic, a rout, a defeat and what
became known in history as Stillman’s Run. The story was spread
that Gridley was the first to retreat, return home and proclaim
himself the sole survivor.
Ezra Prince, a Bloomington Lawyer, who
wrote an account of Stillman’s defeat for the McLean County
Historical Transactions in 1899 used as a principal source for his
questionable account which led to the demeaning of Asahel Gridley’s
character John W. Rhodes, who had been First Lieutenant of Company II
and who had taken no active part in the Stillman episode. Rhodes was
the source of the story that Gridley was the first to return from
Stillman’s Run, to claim the men had been surrounded by a thousand
Indians, and to claim that he Gridley had been the sole survivor.
Gridley was branded a coward. In another account by Sergeant David
Simmons the engagement on the Rock River was described as a wild
retreat and a dastardly rout in which Gridley was no hero.
The official record of the Black Hawk
War, however, depicts Gridley as a hero who was the first to sound
the alarm of impending danger and was cited for his being a true
soldier at the point of great crisis.
The record in The History of McLean
County (p. 266), quoting from a “History of Illinois”
indicates that all of Major Stillman’s men “for years
afterward…were made the subject of thoughtless merriment and
ridicule, as undeserving as their expedition was disastrous.”
Asahel Gridley’s own account of the
situation is worth noting. Gridley stated that his company from
McLean County consisted of fifty-six mustered men. He went on: “The
volunteers in Stillman’s Battalion numbered just 206 men. The men
were very anxious to go and clean out the Indians, and not wait for
the regulars. So we went on and came up with the Indians, six or
seven hundred strong, a little way on the other side of what is now
called Stillman’s Run. I cannot say much about the fight, but
this, and that is, we got most beautifully whipped in the fight with
the Indians. We only lost one man from this county, and his name is
Joseph Draper; he was in our company. After the fight we returned to
Dixon, thirty miles distant, the best way we could. Soon after the
battle, we were sent back to this county and mustered out of
service.”
In 1836 Gridley took a trip back east
and sold in Philadelphia between $20,000 and $30,000 worth of lots in
Bloomington. He also married Mary Ann Enos, described by Fell as an
“accomplished lady” and being from a superior family and by
others as being the most beautiful woman in Bloomington. He had met
her on a previous visit. Their marriage took place on March 18,1836
at the Third Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a
ceremony conduct by the Rev. Riddle. The church had been built at
Third and Ferry Streets in Pittsburgh in 1834, but on June 1, shortly
following Asahel and Mary’s marriage and their move to Bloomington,
the bells on the church tolled disaster, the church was destroyed by
fire and all records lost.
Mary Ann Enos was born in Onondaga
Hollow, Onondaga County, New York on March 18,1818, the daughter of
William C and Clarissa Barney Enos. Early in his career William C.
Enos was known to have been a Sea Captain. By 1820 he had moved his
family to Jefferson County, Indiana, where daughter Caroline was born
18 Mar 1824, to Louisiana where son Albert G. was born in 1830, and
by the early 1830s he had established himself in business in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he was an Alderman. Asahel and Mary
probably met at the time of one of Gridley’s trips East when he
made stops in Pittsburgh and also knew of the family when they
resided in Onondaga County, N.Y.
From 1839 to 1841 Gridley served as
McLean County Treasurer, and from 1840 – 1842 he served in the
lower branch of the Twelfth General Assembly as State Representative.
During that time, when county lines were being drawn, Gridley, along
with Jesse Fell and Merritt Covel saw to it that McLean County became
one of the largest in the state.
Gridley himself described his campaign
for election to the legislature in 1840. “Welcome P. Brown was my
opponent. In that memorable campaign, we got up a monster procession
and went from here to Peoria. We had a large canoe, hewn out of a
tree and put on wheels, and in it we had twelve of the soldiers of
the war of 1812. The canoe was drawn by twelve horses. We stopped
in all the towns on the way – Mackinaw, Tremont and others – and
had meetings there, and they were good ones, too. Everybody turned
out…”
Jesse Fell made a telling commentary
on that campaign. During the procession to Peoria a stop was made in
the town of Washington where Judge David Davis, Dr. John F. Henry,
Jesse Fell himself, and others made speeches. All of those men were
accustomed to giving public speeches. Gridley was not. Fell
described: “I called on the General. He immediately responded,
and though wholly unprepared, made a speech that for clearness,
point, and telling effect, was inferior to nothing we had heard
during our trip. I slept with him that night, and have good reason
to know that that was a turning point in his history. This effort
had roused him to a consciousness of power in a new direction.”
On January 9, 1841 at the Illinois
Legislature, Lincoln was aware that a resolution had been presented
by his friend Asahel Gridley. The “Illinois State Register” on
January 22, 1841 referred to it as “a burlesque petition” that
had been presented by Gridley, a Whig, whit reference to a speech by
Alpheus Wheeler, Democrat of Pike County. John A McClernand, a
Democrat of Gallatin County, offered a resolution condemning the
petition and its presentation by Gridley as insulting to the House.
Lincoln expressed that he would be sorry to see a resolution of this
kind pass, calculated to wound the feelings of him who had presented
the petition. He hoped the resolution would be so modified. Mr.
Lincoln then moved to strike out that portion of the resolution
requiring the petition to be returned to the member presenting it.
Thus, Lincoln acted in behalf of Asahel Gridley.
Henry C. Whitney, another friend of
Lincoln, recalled Lincoln’s reaction to Gridley’s use of the
English language. Whitney recollected how in the McLean circuit
court Gridley roasted the city government of Bloomington in a speech
made in a misdemeanor case. Whitney presumed that Gridley being one
of the two wealthiest men in Bloomington was prejudiced against the
city government because of high taxes, and “Grid” seized this
occasion to abuse the government without stint or limit.
Whitney described how Lincoln enjoyed,
in certain moods, language stripped naked, using language which would
have reflected a brilliant carnation luster on the pages of Decameron
or Rebelais. Whitney went on: “Lincoln was entranced by reason of
the wit and extreme radicalism of the language used. “We were
sitting together, and a broad grin suffused his countenance for
nearly an hour. He would turn to me and whisper, every few moments:
‘Don’t he dew that well?’” According to Whitney, that
sort of thing suited Lincoln. Whitney concluded with the observation
that he never heard coarse language in a court in session.
In a case in Bloomington in which
Asahel Gridley faced the opposing counsel of Kersey Fell, Fell’s
brother-in-law Franklin Price reported that Gridley “raved and
cantered around in great fury, and declared that he would take Mr.
Fell into the courthouse yard and kick him around the square…”
Another story had it that Gridley even
stood on street corners under the influence of liquor and cursed
every prominent man in town. One of his friends, William Flagg, who
in 1848 and ’49 was among the foremost inventors of improved
reapers, became fed up with his accusation and sued him for slander.
Gridley’s lawyer won an acquittal for him with the unusual defense:
“If anyone else had said such things, he would be guilty of
slander, but everybody knows that General Gridley talks that way all
the time.” Gridley’s lawyer was Abraham Lincoln.
“Because of Gridley’s caustic
criticisms, for years many prominent people refused to speak to him
on the streets of Bloomington.”
Although Gridley was sharp-tongued and
short tempered, brought on surely in great part by the stigma of
cowardice having been placed on him during the Black Hawk War, he did
acquiesce to the citizens of McLean County and accepted a demotion
from First Lieutenant to private. However in 1844 the same citizens
elect him Brigadier-General for the Mexican War. In this war he did
not serve but through his life retained the title “General.”
Gridley formed a law partnership with
Allen and Prickett. David Prickett died in 1847. Subsequently
Gridley formed a partnership with Col. J. H. Wickizer. On September
5, 1856 Reuben M. Benjamin, a county judge, passed his law
examination administered by Gridley and went into practice with
Gridley and J. H. Wickizer.
At Springfield, Illinois on July 7,
1852 Asahel was one of three nominees for Lieutenant Governor of the
State of Illinois but lost the nomination to Col. J. Morrison.
On February 5, 1853 Lincoln called
upon Asahel Gridley, then a State Senator from McLean County, to
introduce for him a bill to incorporate the Vermillion Coal and
Manufacturing Company to the Illinois State Legislature. The Bill
passed the Senate but died in the House upon adjournment.
In a letter dated August 10, 1858
Lincoln wrote to Albert Parker, Esq. in which Lincoln responded to a
legal question concerning Gridley. Asahel Gridley as agent for the
Illinois Central Railroad had sold the company’s land in Livingston
County to settlers, taking their notes payable to himself, and was
suing the purchasers, who had no assurance of deeds to their
property. Parker had asked in his letter to Lincoln dated August 7,
“Cannot the collection of Gridley’s noted be stayed until the
parties get deeds?” Lincoln’s response to Parker was: “As to
the law-question. As the consideration of the notes, Gridley will
insist they were given because of his acting as agent for the makers
of the notes, in purchasing the land; and I rather think this will
make out a legal consideration.”
Originally a Whig and elected by the
Whigs to the State legislature, Gridley later identified himself with
the Republican cause in 1856, serving upon the State Central
Committee during the campaign of that year, but, in 1872, he took
part in the Liberal Republican movement, serving as a delegate to the
Cincinnati Convention.
The closeness of the relation ship
between Abraham Lincoln and Asahel Gridley is illustrating in
“Lincoln Day by Day – A chronology 1809 – 1865,” Earl S.
Miers, Editor-in-Chief, Washington, 1960, Lincoln Sesquicentennial
Commission. There are no fewer than thirty references to legal and
court cases and legislative sessions in which Lincoln and Gridley
participated together. In a number of the cases Lincoln argued
against legal counsel Gridley. In others they argued cases together
as a team. In one case on April 21, 1854 Lincoln argued a case for
the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad against the McLean County Bank
of which Asahel Gridley was administrator.
In a most unusual case in Urbana,
Illinois on May 10, 1845 Lincoln and Gridley were appointed to defend
William Weaver, a drunkard who shot David Hiltebran with a rifle for
no apparent reason. The shot entered Hiltebran’s right side and he
died. Weaver was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged but
escaped. Lincoln is known to have hated to take cases for a
defendant when he was sure the defendant was guilty, and he would try
to get someone to take his place. In this instance he apparently got
his friend Gridley to take the case with him, but even with their
combined skills they could not get a not guilty verdict for their
client.
Gridley himself said of Lincoln: “When
Mr. Lincoln had a good case, he was invincible; when he had a poor
case, or one in which he thought he had not justice on his side, I
would rather be against him than any man I know. When he had an idea
that he was in the wrong, he could not take the same interest, and I
could win nine cases out of ten of that kind when Mr. Lincoln was on
the other side.”
In a series of complicated political
maneuvers regarding a vote on a controversial vote during a session
of the Illinois State Legislature which convened in a church in
Springfield, Joseph Gillespie described: “Lincoln and I, determined
to leave the Hall and going to the door found it locked and then
raised a window and jumped out, but not until the democrats had
succeeded in adjourning. Mr. Gridley of McLean accompanied us in our
exit.” The doors had been locked by order of the Speaker.
Gridley is also mentioned in Lincoln’s
correspondence such as in a letter to Judge David Davis on July 7,
1856. Speaking of his own letter to Davis, he said, “Show this to
Gridley and other friends, or not, just as you may judge
whether it do good or harm.”
Asahel Gridley was the bitter public
enemy of Judge Davis. Whitney described how Gridley was probably
richer than Davis and would not pay needed deference to him. A
typical exchange in court: Davis – “You don’t call that law, do
you?” said the Judge. Gridley – “My clients hired me to
try this case, and if we need your help, we will call on you.”
Judge David Davis was described as “a
Brobdingnagian of a man, over six feet tall, weighing more than three
hundred pounds.” And, “because of his autocratic ways, many
lawyers around the circuit disliked and feared him.” Part of
Davis’ dislike for Gridley could have stemmed from the fact that
Gridley was slender and only 5 feet 8 inches tall and had the nerve
to speak up to Davis, whereas most other lawyers feared him.
The hostility between them was
increased by the fact that Davis for many years was pro-slavery.
Gridley was an Abolitionist. “Abolitionist” was the most
opprobrious epithet known. Gridley was the one who introduced the
speaker on abolitionism for a mass meeting held in Bloomington’s
public square at the west side of the Court House.
Gridley introduced the abolitionist
Owen Lovejoy arousing the enthusiasm of the crowd “in his usual
vigorous style, and caused several interruptions from some of the
highly-excited auditors.” The dual effect of Gridley’s
introduction and Lovejoy’s mesmerizing speech cause nearly everyone
in the crowd to become ardent Republicans. Previously Gridley
himself had been a Whig and had been elected to the Legislature and
Senate as a Whig.
In 1870 when Dr. Etzard Duis asked
Jesse Fell to do a sketch on Gridley for his The Good Old Times in
McLean County, which was published in 1874, Fell, by some, was
considered to be Gridley’s best friend. He concluded his sketch
with comments on General Gridley’s volatile temperament. He said:
“I cannot close without referring to a somewhat striking criticism
– shall I call it? – in which he is accustomed to indulge towards
those with whom he differs. Being of a highly impulsive nature and
being utterly incapable of deceit or mental reservation he fires up
with a zeal often more intense than wise. He can assail even a
friend, who the very next hour he cordially embraces and perhaps
renders an important favor.” He went on to add that Gridley often
later admitted that he was “decidedly wrong.” Dr. Duis also
spoke of Gridley as a man “of positive character.”
Judge John McClun spoke in similar
fashion about Gridley’s temperament. “The General might pass a
fellow citizen by for several years without speaking, and then would
stop him, grasp his hand and say, ‘Here, what’s the use of us
being damned fools. Let’s go in and take a drink.”
“The General” obviously was a
controversial figure. His troubles stemmed not only from his
reputation as a coward in the Black Hawk War, but also from having
built a mansion just 17 years after having declared bankruptcy. When
President Andrew Jackson withdrew federal funds from the privately
owned National Bank, a ripple effect started that culminated in the
Panic of 1837. Land became valueless. Soon after Gridley started a
newspaper on January 14, 1837, on January 23 1837 he placed an ad on
the front page:
$25 REWARD
I will give the above
reward to any person
Who will cause all persons
indebted to me
by note or otherwise to
pay the same when
due. Punctuality is the
life of business,
and to enable me to again
do business, I
must collect my debts,
peaceably if I can –
forcibly if I must.
Gridley
Conditions did not
improve and by 1842 Asahel Gridley took bankruptcy. Jesse Fell
believed that Gridley’s bankruptcy which may have been looked upon
as a financial failure, “I have always looked upon as fortunate, as
it developed his powers in other directions, and thereby secured a
higher measure of success than he could reasonably have hoped for,
had he continued in his old business.”
Fell recalled a
conversation he had with Gridley in the Spring of 1841. He “…seemed
more thoroughly saddened in spirit that I had ever before or since
known him. The question was, what he should do to repair his
shattered fortunes, and to supply the wants of a growing family.”
He was averse to using his experience in the Legislature to the
advantage of thousands others were doing –“flocking to Washington
to get some ‘fat office.’” Fell went on: “I need scarcely say
I advised him to immediately qualify himself for the practice of law,
and this advice, aided by similar suggestions from other quarters,
may have contributed to bring about that result.” Fell went on to
describe how Gridley went on to become not only a respectable but an
able attorney.
By 1842 “The
General” had taken up law and traveled during the early days of his
law career with Abraham Lincoln over territory where they both
practiced law.
Eventually Asahel
Gridley along with Leonard Swett, John M. Scott and William Ward Orme
were known as leading lawyers in McLean County.
Early on Lincoln
and Gridley practiced law together and used to travel around the
circuit together in a two horse buggy, fording streams and swapping
stories, visiting the different county seats to try law cases.
Lincoln was also a close companion of Judge Davis, but Davis traveled
by himself in a two-horse buggy while Lincoln rode in his own
conveyance, drawn by his celebrated horse “Buck.” At other times
as many as eight or ten lawyers traveled together, Gridley and
Lincoln among them.
Gridley is
described by Henry Clay Whitney as one of a circle of fourteen
lawyers of which included Abraham Lincoln and how as many as ten of
them at a time would ride all day long in one vehicle, “and singing
over half the way.” “When I lived ‘way down in Ole Virginny,”
was named as their favorite song “for two or three terms.” “We
knew only a stanza and a half, but we sung these over and over
again.” Lincoln was the only member of the group who did not sing.
When he first came
to Bloomington, Gridley made music in the streets. With his two
friends – William Dimmitt, who played the violin, and Merritt
Covel, the clarinet – and he himself on the bass drum they made the
town ring with music and would go from one place to another
serenading.
In 1860 seventeen
years following his bankruptcy, Gridley had become the wealthiest man
in town and built a hug mansion, the most sumptuous home in
Bloomington. It was constructed of cream colored bricks imported
from Milwaukee with French windows along the front of the residence
that opened out on to a stone patio roofed over with lacy ironwork.
Each window and door was surmounted by a graceful stone pediment. It
was grander than most citizens had ever seen. It was built at a cost
of $40,000 and is located at what is now 301 East Grove Street.
When Lincoln
appeared in Bloomington at a Rally, Gridley showed his friend his
home. Lincoln is reported to have remarked, “Gridley, do you want
everybody to hate you?”
Mrs. Gridley in
her reminisces of 1899 recounted how the sand as well as all the
mechanics for building the house were brought from Chicago. A Mr.
Evans of Bloomington was the overseer of the woodwork. “The
woodwork has never been varnished since, so you can glean an idea of
the thoroughness of the workmanship then.” She then described how
the old pieces of furniture were once “show pieces” to the people
of the city. A rosewood and mohair settee was conspicuous for having
been brought from Pittsburgh, since it was the settee “before which
Mr. Gridley and I stood when the words were pronounced ever making us
husband and wife.” Furniture also included the first rocking chair
and the first caned furniture ever brought to Bloomington. Over the
years the Gridleys took trips to Europe at which times they collected
tapestries and Cazara marble statuary and bronze statuary from Italy.
One piece was that of a Roman Senator. Their paintings included
works of Michael Angelo and Madame Le Brun. The center piece of
their music room was the first grand piano in the city along with a
cherished treasure, a music box, a facsimile of a Swiss Shalet. Dr.
Schroeder was known, however, to have had the first full grand piano.
The Library consisted of a collection of rare works of great
literary figures and included several volumes that once belonged to
Abraham Lincoln.
Other firsts
included a baby carriage from New York when their first child was
born and the first carriage and carriage horses and the equipage.
Mrs. Gridley had
also in her possession a dozen out glass champagne glasses of the
high stemmed style. She recounted how “many a time Judge Davis and
his first wife, a Massachusetts lady of much refinement, borrowed
those glasses, not to use as receptables for the effervescent
beverage, for which they were designed, but for vases for flowers to
decorate their home in honor of their guests.”
Asahel Gridley was
recognized as the first millionaire in McLean County (some say
Central Illinois) and was known as a man with an immense fortunce.
Most of his wealth went into real estate, and he is known to have
owned twenty six farms. Much of his property came to him by way of
acquisitions in townships of Cheny’s Grove, Clue Cound, Dale,
Dawson, Downs, Empire, Funk’s Grove, Hudson, Lexington, Dry Grove,
Money Creek, Mount Hope, Normal, Old Town, Randolph, West, White Oak,
and Towanda as well as in Gridley. The properties in Empire and
Normal were acquired in 1835 and 1836. Most of the others were
acquired in August and September of 1852. He also owned properties
in Woodford and Iroquois counties. He, of course, also possessed
several properties before his death in 1881, but he also acquired
others such as twenty-four lots in San Diego, California.
The Inventory
taken after his death listed Gridley’s holdings in Bloomington.
Gridley owned his homestead and stable on Grove Street, properties at
109 and 111 E. Front Street which were occupied by two stone front
stores run by J. E. Houtz & Co., 113 E. Front Street where his
Gas Fixture Store was located, six lots where the McLean County Bank
was located, two lots on West Front Street on which were two brick
stores occupied by W. K. Dodson & Willever & Holmes, a lot on
which Gridley’s Malt House was located, four lots at 106 West Front
Street with a brick store occupied by I. D. Smith & Co., four
lots at 110 W. Front Street where a brick store was situated and
occupied by J. R. Smith & Co., four lots at 112 W. Front Street
with a brick store occupied by Geo. Brand. Gridley also owned a lot
known as “the Weldon lot.” In his possession were also three
lots known as “the old Gas Lots,” two lots known as the “Gas
Company Residence,” where the superintendent of the Gas Works
lived, and eleven blocks occupied by the Gas Works itself.
During the Panic
of 1873 contemporaries reported that he made rebates to his tenants.
Asahel Gridley was
an outstanding attorney and was an eloquent orator as well as being a
most successful pleader before the Court.
Gridley was
elected a state senator and served two terms – 1850 – 1854. In
the campaign for election in 1850 his opponents tried to capitalize
on his bankruptcy in a publication addressed to the voters of McLean,
Tasewell, and Logan Counties, listing a full account of his debts of
1842 and bankruptcy proceedings and calling him an unscrupulous and
dishonest man and a swindler. The scandal sheet was six columns
wide, two feet in length, and printed on both sides. However, the
populace thought differently of Gridley. He won the election. As a
state senator he took a conspicuous part in the two succeeding
sessions of the General Assembly in securing the location of the
Chicago & Alton and the Illinois Central Railroads by way of
Bloomington. In the later period he was also a leading promoter of
the Indiana, Bloomington & Western and other lines. In 1851,
when the State of Illinois had to designate a route for a projected
railroad, Gridley became an effective legislator and lobbyist, and
Gridley became the agent appointed for McLean and Woodford counties
to obtain the necessary land.
Gridley addressed
a letter to the public which was printed in “The Western
Intelligencer.”
Senate
Chamber, February 6, 1851
The Senate, this
moment, by a vote of 23 to 2, has passed the Central Railroad
bill….This provision secures the road to Bloomington, Clinton and
Decatur beyond all question, and secures the construction of the
great central road through the three counties of McLean, DeWitt and
Macon….I think the citizens of said counties are fortunate that by
the provisions of this bill this great road is secured to them….I
take this earliest opportunity to advise you, and through you to
advise my fellow-citizens of McLean and other counties of the
Eleventh Senatorial District, of the progress of the Legislature upon
the subject of railroads, well knowing their deep and abiding anxiety
therein. Trusting that my feeble efforts in their behalf may meet
their approbation, I am,
Very respectfully
your obedient servant,
Gridley”
Gridley proved to
be an excellent salesman and is known to have made for himself as
much as a thousand dollars in a day. He also managed to establish
Bloomington’s first bank. In addition he took over the foundering
Gas-Works and established that company as an integral and efficient
contribution to the community.
The McLean County
Bank started in March of 1853 on the site where Gridley earlier
operated his store. The charter then obtained was to run for
twenty-five years. His partners at the time were J. Y. Scammon and
J. A. Burch, but before two years had passed, Gridley owned the
entire stock. Deposits for the first five years were about $200,000.
The Gas-works at a time when such a venture was extremely
problematical were supplied to the town by Gridley’s own means.
In August of 1853
Gridley subscribed $50 toward putting in Union Telegraph lines into
Bloomington. The first telegraph office was opened on January 24,
1854.
Asahel Gridley
also has a town and township in McLean County named after him. In
1856 George Washington Kent, who had been employed by Gridley in
purchasing lands for the railroads, took into partnership Thomas
Carlisle, another employee of Gridley, and together they purchased
Section 4 of Township 26, Range 3, and proceeded to lay out a town
where a railroad was to come through. They named the town “Gridley”
in honor of Asahel, and in July of 1858 transferred their entire
interest in the town and in Section 4 to General Gridley, who soon
came into possession of one hundred and thirty-four additional lots.
The General donated two lots and $200 in 1859 for the build of the
town’s first hotel on the condition that the building be worth
$1,000. It was named the “Gridley House” and actually cost
several hundred dollars more than was stipulated. In July of 1875
Gridley caused the plat of the town to be resurveyed and replatted
so that Gridley could sell lots along the railroad. This brought
about an injunction by the railroad, which was dissolved, but Gridley
commenced suits in ejectments against all parties including the
railroad. Gridley eventually lost his case, but the litigation cause
much perplexity and no little expense and much ill-feeling against
General Gridley. Gridley was accused of being a rich man who had no
feelings for the rights of the poor men. Analysis of the case,
however, reveals that it was probable that the courts, on full
hearing, would have given Gridley the verdict, since Gridley was
operating according “to the general rule of landed proprietors.”
During his
financial difficulties in the early 1850’s Gridley made an
expedition to California, unusual both for its purpose and
perseverance. He went to borrow money from his younger brother
George Washington Gridley in what later was named Gridley,
California. In honor of the occasion his younger brother renamed one
of his own sons “Asahel”. The overland trip on horseback from
Midwest to farwest and return to Midwest exemplified the General’s
unusual tenacity and stamina.
The name Asahel
was carried on in two lineages of the family George Washington
Gridley. Currently one of which enjoys dual residence in Hagerman,
Idaho and San Diego, California, and the other lives in Burbank,
Illinois.
On May 15, 1857
Asahel Gridley was one of a number of contributors of $5,000 for the
building of Normal University. Gridley also drew up the form of bond
or guarantee for the project.
Asahel Gridley’s
stamina became legendary during the sessions of the State Senate. It
was said that during the senate sessions he would ride horseback all
night to Springfield, a distance of sixty miles, conduct his business
during the day and ride back that night, ready to go to work in
Bloomington the next morning. He made the trip twice a week.
A friendship
between the like of Gridley and Lincoln was not unusual for Lincoln.
Lincoln’s partner between 1852 and 1857 Ward Hill Lamon, described
by Lincoln as “my particular friend,” possessed a personality not
unlike that of Gridley. “A gusty boisterous, roistering, impulsive
but by no means unlearned man, almost as tall as Mr. Lincoln himself,
with an Irishman’s love of a brawl, and a fine, full, confident
voice, he possessed a gift which he cultivated into a habit for
getting into good graces, frenzied situations, and hot water.” A
letter deposited in Illinois State Historical Library, written by
Lamon and addressed to Gridley in 1866 expressed a bond between Lamon
and Gridley. Lamon, who was a law partner from 1857 to 1861, was by
Lincoln appointed Marshall in Washington, D.C. Gridley had sent
Lamon a copy of the April 25, 1866 issue of the Weekly Pantagraph
Bloomington’s newspaper which in turn had taken material from two
other papers including the Chicago Tribune, and thus
circulated a story, all of which was meant to defame and slander
Lamon. Apparently the Chicago Tribune had turned against
Lincoln, the story about Lincoln wanted to resign his position in
Washington, and Lincoln stood by him and would not allow him to do
so. A telling line came near the close of the letter: “I leave you
to draw the parallel between us.”
The closeness
between Lincoln and Gridley is also demonstrated in the file of
fourteen telegrams and letters, now in the Library of Congress
(Appendix V), send by Asahel Gridley to Abraham Lincoln in 1859 and
1860. This correspondence, in which Gridley sought Lincoln’s legal
advice and counsel while Lincoln was candidating for the Republican
nomination for the Presidency and while he was running for the
office, gives credence to the suggestion that the two were close
politically as well during the entire campaign, and Lincoln certainly
may have offered Gridley and ambassadorship to a European nation.
After Lincoln
became President of the United Stated he summoned General Gridley to
Washington and offered him the ministership of the Office of St.
James in London. When the General replied, “Impossible, I can’t
go,” Lincoln countered with the offer of an ambassadorship to
Russia. Gridley stood and answered Lincoln, “I appreciate this
great honor, but I prefer to remain a private citizen.” Lincoln
approached Gridley, placed his hands on his shoulders and said,
“Well, Gridley, I guess you’re right, but I can’t think of any
man I would rather send.”
The year the Gridleys moved into their mansion – 1860 – was the
beginning of a series of tragedies. The Gridleys had seven children,
but only four survived. Charles Skidmore Gridley was born on 14 Jan
1839 and died on 28 Jan 1848 from an infection resulting in lock jaw
following a gunshot wound from a gun his father had given him.
Edward was born 13 May 1850 and died in 8 Jun 1850. George was born
and died in 1860. Three unnamed infants born in 1862, 1864, and 1868
were removed from their original burial sites and placed in the
Gridley plot and were buried simultaneously on October 26, 1866.
These were three infants of Juliette Gridley and her first husband
Frederick D. Tater who were married in 1857. Another Gridley infant
of unidentified parentage, Mary B., died on 25 Dec 1871 after having
lived for just twenty-five days.
A friend took
Edgar Lee Masters to Evergreen Cemetary to see fice of the tiny
graves. He wrote a poem about them for his “New Sppon River
Anthology.” The name of the parents are changed as is that of his
friend, “the old maid.”
“Here we are,
five of us
Children of William
and Janice Poncey
All of us nameless,
for none of us lived a day
Three of us died in
an hour,
One in two hours,
one in five.
And all our little
stones are alike,
And contain nothing
but dates and parentage;
And in a circle
carved at the top
A passion flower
bent upon its broken stalk.
Why does the old
maid Zetta Tucker
Come here so often,
and kneel before our stones,
And look and look?”
There is reported
to have been tension of demonic proportions between the General and
his wife.
During the
election of 1860 when Lincoln and Douglas opposed each other for the
presidency, General Gridley introduced Lincoln to a Republican rally.
Mrs. Gridley put a Douglas flag on Gridley’s carriage and escorted
Stephen A. Douglas to a Democratic rally. On this incident Judge
David Davis commented, “Many men would not live another day with
her after such an impropriety.” This incident did not effect their
relationship between either Lincoln and Gridley or between the
Gridleys and Stephen A. Douglass. Lincoln is known to have visited
the Gridley home often enough for Mrs. Gridley to confide that “Mr.
Stephen A. Douglas was the most interesting conversationalist I ever
met, but Mr. Lincoln was the peer of any of those I have known.”
On one occasion Lincoln was in the Gridley home to dry off after
riding with Asahel from Pontiac, Illinois in a driving rain and
became soaked to the skin. All that was available to Lincoln were
some of Asahel’s clothes. Mrs. Gridley was known to comment: “You
can imagine how abbreviated the trousers and sleeves were on
Lincoln.” Everyone knows that Lincoln was considerably taller than
Gridley’s 5’ – 8”.
In spite of the
rivalry between Douglas and Lincoln and the obvious sensitivity of
Gridley’s position with respect to Mary Gridley and Stephen Douglas
and Lincoln, Gridley always thought of Douglas as a friend. “When
he came here he always stayed with me, and always, up to the time of
his death, we were warm personal friends. As a man, he was honorable
and just.” Gridley added another note on Douglas: “He never
amounted to much of a lawyer; that is to say, he never took rank with
Lincoln and Baker….As a District Attorney he was not a success, and
I don’t believe he convicted one case out of ten that he was
interested in.”
Gridley was also
reported seen by neighbors, the Cheneys, to have put his wife out of
the house at night in the snow clad only in her nightgown and to have
shut the door. Asahel even accused Mary of smothering the infants to
death.
Personal friends
were divided over whether Mrs. Gridley was a martyr to her terrible
tempered husband or whether the General led a hard life with an
eccentric willful wife. The death of infants could have affected the
temperament of either or both.
Harold Sinclair in
1938 wrote a novel, “American Years,” a fictionalized biography
of Bloomington from 1830 – 1860. General Gridley appears as
General Green. General Green was “the villain.”
The relationship
between the General and Mrs. Gridley was not totally strident,
however. A memorandum written by Abraham Lincoln on April 17, 1861,
when he was President of the United States, suggests otherwise. The
memorandum concerned the appointment of Albert G. Enos. Lincoln
wrote: “I have but very slight acquaintance with Mr. Enos, but,
Col. Gridley who writes the accompanying letter, is my intimate
political & personal friend, whom I would like to oblige.”
Apparently Gridley had written Lincoln to assist in the appointment
of Albert G. Enos, who was commissioned major of the Eighth
Pennsylvania regiment on September 18, 1861. Enos resigned October
16, 1862. This appointment is especially significant in that Asahel
Gridley’s wife was Mary Enos, who presumably influenced her husband
to assist in the appointment of Albert G. Enos, her brother. After
the Civil War Major Albert G. Enos died at the age of 48 of the
effects of wounds suffered in the battles of Wilderness and Fair Oaks
and was buried in Bloomington on 12 Feb 1872.
The name Albert
Enos, Mary Enos Gridley’s brother, also suggests the source of the
name of the Gridley’s first son.
There were two
sons – Albert (b. 7 May 1842) and Edward (b. 13 Dec 1853) – and
two daughters – Juliet (Juliette) Elizabeth Percival Gridley (b. 27
Feb 1837), and Mary (b. 1851).
They too may have
contributed to the eccentricities of their parents.
In 1857 at age 19
Juliet’s wedding was the social occasion of the year in
Bloomington. At age 18 she with two other young women were most
responsible for raising funds for the first public library. She had
her father’s leadership qualities. Since Tater was a merchant that
the 1860 Census showed with a real estate value of $3,000 and
personal property valued at $6,000 (some or much of which was
probably Juliet’s), and the Tater’s suffered the death of three
infants (1862,1864,1866), it is possible that the combined effect of
Juliet’s living standard being so much lower than that to which she
had been accustomed combined with the death of the infants may
account for her divorcing Tater, remarrying him, and divorcing him
again.
In the aftermath of the Great Fire in Chicago in 1871 Asahel and Mary
Gridley joined a contingency of people of Bloomington to offer
whatever help they could. The men contributed money, merchandise and
clothing. The women baked and cooked. Together they filled a car
and shipped the goods to Chicago.
In 1871 Mary at
age 20 married Benjamin Bruce of Chicago. She soon divorced him and
returned to live in Bloomington. Juliet, having divorced a second
time, went to Europe to live and met and married Count Ernest
Schoenrock of Switzerland. Mary met and married Frederick Bell of
Rochester, N.Y. Their marriage took place on January 24, 1878. This
was the occasion for a family reunion at which violent arguments
exploded and Juliet and the Count returned to Europe.
Both Albert and
Edward were playboys, and Asahel gave up on Albert. The General
realized he made a mistake with Albert and tried to make amends with
one son for what he thought he may have done to the other, by
bringing Edward into his business affairs as an associate.
Nearing age 70 in
1879 Gridley envisioned many projects. That year he was a leading
figure in founding a medical school. He was made President of the
Board of Trustees, with head of Illinois State Normal and Wesleyan as
his vice-presidents. Because of his generous contribution, the
school was to be name Gridley Medical College. When Gridley died in
1881, the project died with him.
General Asahel
Gridley died at 12:07 a.m. on January 25, 1881. His death came at
the conclusion of many weeks of suffering following his attempt a
year earlier to help put out a fire in his bank. This emergency
aggravated a lung ailment, which combined with exhaustion, led to his
demise. For the last year of his life he spent most of his time at
home. He confessed to a friend that he was not afraid to die but
wanted to live six more months so he might build three more stores on
Front Street, make some improvements in the Gas Works and consolidate
some land holdings. His wife aggravated him by denying him
warm-underclothing for his cold extremities, lest “it would make
too much in the wash.” For the last days of his life he was
attended by two friends every night. His condition was reported
daily in the newspaper. Dr. T. F. Worrell attended him constantly.
Just before he died, his family gathered at his bedside, and he
affectionately kissed them.
The General
himself left directions for his funeral and burial on Jan. 27. He
specified that the Masonic Fraternity should be in charge and that
the funeral oration be presented by Fr. S. P. Simpson of St.
Matthew’s Church. He also made the strange request that within a
couple days his body by exhumed and placed in a vault. Customarily
bodies of winter deaths were placed in the City Vault until Spring.
Winter burials that were conducted were done with the aid of heaters
placed over the grave sites to make the earth soft enough to dig.
Presumably Asahel specified that his body be buried at the appointed
time, removed from the cold ground and placed in the vault until
Spring and then be buried once again.
Headlined of The
Pantograph at his death (25 Jan 1881) read:
“HIS WORK IS
DONE…Whose Career is Inseparable from the History of Central
Illinois… After Life’s Fitful Fever, He Sleeps Well.” The
Obituary covered three full pages. 1000 people crowded the Mansion
for the service on 27 Jan 1881. Business houses were closed and 5000
citizens followed the cortege afoot or by carriage as it passed down
Main Street and entered the gates of Evergreen Cemetery. One set of
pall-bearers to the cemetery and another (from the Masonic Order) at
the cemetery were used. The Pantograph concluded the story of
the funeral (27 Jan 1881): “…and the remains of the rich banker
and millionaire were left to mingle with the clods of the valley.”
Asahel Gridley was
known as the oldest pioneer who lived consecutively in the city of
Bloomington since the year of its first settlement. At his death he
had lived in the community for fifty years.
The State of
Illinois recognizes Gridley as one of the greatest of its pioneers.
He was not only instrumental in the founding and development of
Bloomington but also had a hand in establishing several other small
towns in McLean County. He was intensely patriotic, and his time and
talents were given unstintingly to the up building of the state and
his home city.
Mary Gridley Bell
died in the second week of November, 1943 at age 93. For many years
she retained residence at both Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where she
died, and at the Illinois Hotel in Bloomington. She was laid to rest
in her father’s cemetery plot in the Evergreen Cemetery in
Bloomington on 14 Nov 1943.
Mary Gridley Bell
left no heirs, and the bulk of her estate was bequeathed in trust
funds and gifts to St. Joseph’s Hospital and St. Matthew’s Church
in Bloomington, the city of Lake Geneva, Wisc., and the Episcopal
Church of Holy Communion in Lake Geneva. Bequests were also made to
St. Joseph’s Hospital and St. Matthew’s Church in Bloomington.
Since much of Asahel Gridley’s estate had been placed in trust of
Mary Gridley Bell, the estate amounting to $334,720.90, all four
parties who were beneficiaries of Mary Gridley Bell’s estate became
defendants in a suit brought against them by Emily Gridley, the widow
of the deceased Logan Gridley, son of Albert, son of Asahel, and a
half sister of Logan by the name of Mrs. Irene Temple Hyde. Mrs.
Hyde died in 1939 and left a portion of income property to Sarah A.
Rector of Morovia, California and the balance in trust to Emily
Gridley. The case was in litigation for several years and had to
await a ruling by the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois.
The court’s
decision was the partition of the estate so that Emily Gridley was to
receive a third of the Mary Gridley Bell trust property; 5-24 was
paid the estate of Logan A. Gridley, her husband; and 3/24 to the
estate of Irene Hyde, who was Logan Gridley’s half sister. A third
was to go to the subject to sizeable claims against the estate. The
final third was to go to the estate of Mary Gridley Bell.
Beneficiaries who
received additional money from the one third added to the Mary
Gridley Bell estate were St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in
Bloomington and the Episcopal Church of Lake Geneva, Wisc., which
shared alike as residuary beneficiaries under Mary Gridley Bell’s
will.
There are no
descendants of General Asahel Gridley. He was easily forgotten in
Bloomington, Illinois. His gravesite is unknown to the citizens of
the city he helped establish. Few know who first occupied the
mansion named “The Oaks” by the next owners, the Humphries'
family, and which eventually became an apartment
building, for which the City Directory of Bloomington for 1993 listed
twenty occupants. The apartment building is named “The Oaks."
The man whose statue stands at the
center of the rotunda of the Courthouse in Bloomington, Illinois is
virtually unknown even to those who daily pass by. However, as
recently as the first week of January 1992 Bill Todtz of the McLean
County Historical Society wrote an article in the McLean County
Community News to call the General and the contributions he had made
to the city to the attention of the citizenry of Bloomington.
Those who do remember him recall the
General as an eccentric, vitriolic, and terrible tempered man. His
contribution to the city, the state, and the nation tend to be
forgotten in the lore of what he was
supposed to have been like as an individual and the stories that
passed down about the deterioration of his own family.
Throughout his career "The
General" was maligned and demeaned as a coward for having led
the rout called Stilman’s Run in the Black Hawk War. That story
was perpetuated by townsmen who were in the battle and in the rout
with him. It is no wonder that "The General" was
ill-tempered, since these same townsmen were those for whom he was
trying to build a better city and state.
The legend of Asahel Gridley's
cowardice at Stillman's Run was perpetuated in print many times and
as recently as 1979 in an article in "The Illinois Magazine."
Official documents of the Black Hawk
War, however, present a different picture of "The General."
It must be admitted that details in
the official documents are disputed, such as whether there were 206
or 260 (not 275) men in the brigade. At the time Gridley was a First
Lieutenant of Capt. Merritt L. Covell's company. (Gridley also
served under Covell in a home-guard company and helped construct a
fort near Mackinaw Timber near Lawndale.) Also, the reliability of
the reports are sometimes questioned because they were written by
officers who were participants. This is particularly important,
since admittedly many errors of military judgment were made in the
campaign against the Indians, and the officers were prone to try to
cover their own errors, especially after a losing battle.
However, in a letter addressed to the
“Sangamo Journal” on June 10, 1832 Andrew H. Maxfield, who was a
Private in another company in Isaiah Stillman's Battalion, reported
that near the beginning of the encounter with the Indians it was Lieut. Gridley who by himself scouted a
group of them and gave the warning to the Battalion. Maxfield wrote
of Gridley “in whom are combined the gentleman and the soldier.”
He added that when the battle ensued, Lieut. Gridley for the brave
and intrepid coolness he displayed
“deserves a high eulogy.” When night came “the Indians were
now seen by the glimmering moon light, on three sides like swarms of
summer insects. Our lines were never formed again.”
Maxfield reported that not less than
30 Indians lost their lives in the conflict. Stillman reported that
the number of Indians in the battle was not known, but his Battalion
was surrounded by what he called 'a whole hostile band," of
which 34 lost their lives. Stillman also
reported that eleven of his men were killed and five wounded.
Maxfield concluded: "On the whole, our escape may be considered
fortunate almost to a miracle."
Asahel Gridley came to Bloomington,
Ill. in 1831 with high hopes of being a successful business man and
by May 13 and 14 of 1832 found himself in one of the most
controversial battles and wars in American history. That war with
the Indians was designed to take care of the Indian
problem from Michigan to the Mississippi River, but in dealing with
the "problem with the Indians" a series of serious military
and strategic blunders were made. Instead of making this a "war"
sponsored by the Federal government, governors such as Gov. John
Reynolds took it upon himself to be "commander-in-chief" in
his state and rallied hundreds of young men into militias who were
totally unprepared and undisciplined for such a venture. In addition
Brig. General Henry Atkinson along with Brig.
General Stillman made numerous errors of judgment and strategy in
various steps in the campaign. Their problem was compounded by the
lack of military readiness of their enlistees who sometimes before a
battle took on a carnival atmosphere instead of military
preparedness. To add to the seriousness of the situation was the
amount of whiskey distributed throughout the troops and the
underestimation of the determination and ability of the Indians.
Asahel Gridley is a case study in how
citizens of a community come to hate the man who helped build the
city for them. They were envious of his genius and hostile toward
him became of their dependence on him. It is no small wonder that he
lashed out at them. Some of the animosity may also have been rooted
in Gridley's belief, like some other lawyers of his time, “that the
dignity of the profession required that they should erect some sort
of social fence or barrier between themselves and the masses” that
they would meet.18
His wife, who probably herself was
someone acerbic by nature, was disillusioned from the beginning not
finding Bloominton, Illinois like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She too in addition was caught up in
the demeaning of her husband by the community. He undoubtedly was
not hesitant to pour out some of his vitriol on her. She apparently
was high spirited enough not to hesitate to give some of it back to
him.
Asahel possibly built the mansion in
Bloomington for Mary, his wife, to make up for the disillusionment
she first experienced in coming there along with the vision she had
of being a woman of means in the midwest, the bankruptcy, and the
maligning of his character by the citizens of the community.
However, human nature is such that even mansions do not compensate
for macabre manipulations of the human spirit.
In addition how are a husband and wife
to feel as individuals or as a couple after giving birth to ten
children and having six of them die -- all in the maelstrom of
Asahel's
controversial position in the
community?
The tragic dimensions of this life
situation engulfed not only Asahel and Mary Gridley but also swept up
their living children in the same turbulence from which none of them
could escape. They became a family of eccentrics or what today would
be called “a dysfunctional family.”
Although the tribute given to him at
the unveiling of his statue in the Rotunda of the Courthouse in
Bloomington in October of 1931 may be in the exaggerated terms of
florid prose, it may come closer to the truth about “The General”
than the legends that defamed him during his lifetime.
The dedicatory address given by Dr.
John Wesley Hill may be appropriately repeated here. This is it in
part.
“We are still too near the period in which Gen. Gridley thought and
wrought to fully measure his oceanic soul in which the great
qualities united like intermingling streams: patience without
indolence, meekness without weakness, modesty without
stupidity, caution
without fear, courage without rashness, justice without
vindictiveness, patriotism without ostentation, reason without
unbelief, and faith without superstition.”
“Born on a farm
in eastern New York he experienced in youth the discipline of
hardship, the poverty of the American wilderness in which the germ of
manhood grows unrestrained by luxury and untainted by the poison of
prodigality. His ambition could not be confined within the walls of
a school, or the covers of a book. He was a student of nature and
became familiar with actual things -- the forms and forces of the
earth, the poem of the year, the drama of ,the season, the symphony
of the forest, the call of the wild.
His character was constructed upon a colossal scale. He helped
transform Bloomington from a straggling settlement into a city of
opulence and power, classic shades, social pleasures, industrial
development, commercial stability and enticing future.
He was a builder;
he did not toy with trifles. He knew how to bend the bow of Ulysses.
He thought in cosmic terms, and whether the enterprise commanding
his leadership was educational, commercial, legislative or political,
it was all one and the same thing to a man whose brain was unclouded,
whose spirit was that of the pioneer, and whose vision was so clear
and penetrating that he found every civic, industrial, social and
mercantile enterprise an avenue through which to express that spirit
of service which is at the foundation of human progress.
He appeared in a
providential period in our national life, revolving in a rare
constellation of leadership, the center of which was the first and
greatest of all Americans
with whom he was a
comrade in peace and war, Abraham Lincoln. To have beena ssociated
with Lincoln, and to have won his friendship, to have thought and
talked and walked with him, penetrating into the depths of his
spiritual personality, catching the impact of his lofty purpose, the
crystal depths of his sincerity, and the radiant heights of his
patriotism was a rare opportunity indeed.
Study his life
from the nursery of a Godly home to the chamber of his translation
here in Bloomington, from childhood to manhood, the transformation
from citizen to soldier, and again from soldier to the tranquil
citizen, and in all this you may find whence came his greatness. It
was warmed in by the lips of maternal love, prayed in by a other's
loving heart, worked in by the close economics of tireless industry,
worn in by sacrifices on the frontier, toil by day and by night,
weary vigils at the post of duty, soaked in by snow and sleet, and
rain, and mud, starved in by limited rations during the Black Hawk
war, driven in by lead and steel and poison arrow and tomahawk, the
presence and peril of death on the battle field.
A son, loving,
thoughtful, obedient, he received the blessings of a happy mother,
and the smile of Almighty God. A husband, devoted, thoughtful,
faithful, pure, tender and watchful as the stars, he exalted the
American home and clothed it with an undying charm. A father,
absorbed in the usefulness and happiness of his children, he
illustrated the strength of his wisdom, the fidelity of his devotion,
and the richness and fullness of his love. A patriot, he responded
to his country's call, turned aside from business' and served
wherever opportunity of service was found, exalting principle above
expedience, patriotism above partisanship, and the flag above
selfishness and personal ambition. A soldier, untainted with blood,
he has left no thought of passion, no taint of selfishness.
Gen. Gridley is
the guest of honor here today. His spiritual presence is the
greatest reality of this occasion.
‘Though dead he yet speaketh.' His memory hovers like some garment
of light let drop from heaven! He has only gone a few paces in
advance, stepped around the corner and joined the immortals who have
gone before; mounted to the heights of the republic and taken his
place with illustrious company of patriots and heroes -- Washington
and Jefferson, Hamilton and Marshall, Lincoln and Grant, McKinley,
Roosevelt and Wilson,
who are the
sleepless sentinals of our free institutions.”
Although this
dedication is expressed in the most effusive language typical of
eulogies, it is possible that the spirit of the man was captured as
he was rather than as he was made out to be.
END NOTES
1. "Abraham Lincoln," Roy P.
Basler, Ed., Vol. 1, 1953, pp. 226-227.
2. 'Life on the Circuit With Lincoln,"
1940, p. 183. The same incident was reported by Carl Sandburg in his
"Abraham Lincoln -- the Prairie Years -- II," New York,
1926, p. 75.
3. Basler, ~. ~., Vol. II, pp. 189 -
190.
4. Basler, opait., Vol. II. p. 538.
5. "Historical Encyclopedia of
Illinois," pp. 210 - 211.
6. Lincoln Dav Bv Dav -- A Chronolo~
1809 - 1865, Earl S. Miers, Ed., Vol. I, William E. Baringer, 1960.
7. Abraham Lincoln 1809 - 1858, Albert
J. Beveridge, Vol. I, 1928, pp. 280-281.
8. "Abraham Lincoln -- Speeches
and Writings 1832 - 1858," 1989, p. 367.
9. Whitney, op. cit.., p. 78.
10 "Abraham Lincoln Association
Papers," "Lincoln and the Courts 1854 - 1861,"
Benjamin P. Thomas, Abraham Lincoln Association, Springfield,
Illinois, 1934, p. 71.
11. "Lincoln The Citizen.” P.
195.
12. From a commentary by Dr. George T.
Gridley, "The Gridley Genealogy -- Asahel Gridley," 1993,
p. 2 on an article in "The Illinois Magazine," July/August,
1979.
13. "The Lincoln Papers,"
David C Mearns, Vol. I, 1948, p. 55.
14. From article in Bloomington, Ill.
newspaper at time of dedication of Statue of General Asahel Gridley,
October, 1931.
15. 'Letters of Abraham Lincoln,"
Vol. IV, 1953, p. 336. From the Parke-Bernet Catalog 905, December
1-2, 1947, No. 275.
16. "The Statue in the Rotunda,"
January 8 - 14, 1992, p. 3.
17. "The Black Hawk War 1831 -
1832," Vol. II., "Letters and Papers Compiled and Edited by
Ellen M. Whitney; Vol. XXXVI of "Collections of the Illinois
State Historical Library," Springfield, 1973.
18. Whitney, H.C. "Lincoln the
Citizen," 1907, p. 168.
19. From a Bloomington, Illinois
newspaper account October 8, 1931.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas Boslooper was born in Grand
Rapids, Michigan on December 30, 1923. He graduated from Central
High School and Calvin College in Grand Rapids, from Hope College and
Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan and in 1954 received his degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Religion from Columbia University and Union
Theological Seminary in New York City.
During his professional career he has
engaged in several areas of research, writing, and publication in
religion and social studies. From 1981 - 1987 he was Research
Associate at Columbia University, Barnard College, and Princeton
University working as a colleague with a MacArthur Foundation
Scholar.
Since his retirement to the Tampa Bay
area of Florida he has focused on Colonial history and the
development of several families from that era who had an impact on
American history.
Update: Dr. Thomas Boslooper passed away January 11, 1998 in Palm Harbor Florida.
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