On May 1, 1855 Alonzo Chamberlain loaded his wife and two children on a stage coach and traveled forty miles to Montpelier. There they caught a west bound passenger train to start a new life on the western frontier in Winnebago County, Illinois, ten miles south of Beloit, Wisconsin. When he arrived he had only $1.75 in his pocket. He bought a $5 cook stove and paid for it in work.¹

Why did Alonzo leave Glover and why was he broke? There are many unanswered questions about Alonzo after he left. However, a sequence of events before he left, may give some insight.

Alonzo had two children, Amanda and Harry when his wife Betsy died April 25, 1852. His father Spencer was living with him, but moved to his daughter Jeanette’s home sometime between 1850 and before the time Spencer died on December 21, 1853.

Alonzo purchased two adjoining  lots in the village of Glover on April 11 and May 5, 1853. Alonzo and his new wife Lydia Blanchard Chamberlain jointly owned this property in town. They sold it to Warren Smith on February 8, 1855 for $500. Then there was a “Transfer of Mortgage” deed from Alonzo to F. M. McLellan for $300 signed on April 12, 1855. This would leave him with only about $200 before he left Glover.²³

His son Harry wrote that Alonzo had “received letters from some friends who had moved to northern Illinois, thought he saw a chance in that new country to build a home and support his family of a wife and two children more easily than he could on the barren hills of his native state.”³

So, Alonzo packed his belongings into some trunks and loaded his family on a stagecoach and headed for the frontier, which “our people then thought was the land of Indians and untold dangers.”³

They arrived at their new home in Shirland, Winnebago County, Illinois on May 14, 1855. He went to work to support his family. “Wages were seventy cents a day, and twenty-five cents a cord for cutting wood… wealth did not pile up much.”³

In the 1860 census the Chamberlain family of four lived in a structure in Shirland Township, Winnebago County, but no value was shown for the property.

The Underground Railroad in northern Illinois

Alonzo Chamberlain was an abolitionist. He was known to be a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Vermont. Though we know nothing about Alonzo’s personal activities, the UGRR was very active in northern Illinois.

There were well known stops of the UGRR in Byron, Illinois and in Beloit, Wisconsin thirty miles north. Alonzo Chamberlain lived between these locations. Byron has an UGRR museum known as the Read House which was one of three “stations” in town from 1850 to 1862, where fugitive slaves were hidden.  According to the museum director, “Byron held a large group of abolitionists during that time. Most were members of the Congregational Church and came here from New England”.⁴

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is interesting because his son said Alonzo had been corresponding with friends who had moved to northern Illinois. And, Alonzo’s location in Shirland, Winnebago County, twenty miles north of Byron filled a needed gap between Byron and known UGRR safe houses in Wisconsin.

Also, there is an UGRR museum in Milton, Wisconsin called Milton House. It is near Janesville about thirty miles north of Shirland.

It was built in 1844 and has a distinctive hexagon shaped design and a basement where fugitives were hid. There was a 45 foot tunnel from the basement to a nearby cabin.⁴

 

 

 

 Winnebago County Sheriff John Taylor and Alfred Countryman

The history of Winnebago County can give us great insight into the life and times of the Chamberlain family. As pioneers in this new land, they were certainly affected by both local and national events.

On November 11, 1856, Sheriff John Taylor was nearing the end of his term. A new sheriff of Winnebago County had been elected a few days earlier. Sheriff Taylor was looking forward to spending more time on his farm with his expectant wife and eighteen month old son.⁶

That day, two brothers, Alfred and John Countryman herded some cattle into Rockford from another county. They offered the cattle for sale at such a low price it raised suspicion. The purchasers withheld payment and notified the sheriff. Upon investigation, Sheriff Taylor arrested the men on suspicion of cattle rustling and searched them for weapons. He found a pistol ball in Alfred’s pocket and asked for the pistol, but said he had none.^5,6

Sheriff Taylor assisted by the Constable escorted the prisoners to the jailhouse steps where Alfred broke loose. He leaped the fence on Elm Street and ran down the street to the livery stables. The sheriff pursued and was about to seize him. Countryman drew a concealed pistol and fired behind him striking the sheriff. He staggered a few steps and fell. His last words were “I am shot, catch him!“⁵

Many infuriated citizens chased him to the woods north of Kent’s creek where John Platt caught him. With assistance, he wrestled away his pistol and subdued him. Amid threats of lynching, they took him to jail. Sheriff-elect Samuel Church secured the captive with irons.

Alfred Countryman went to trial on February 24 for the murder of Sheriff Taylor. The prosecution and the defense presented their case and it went to a jury of twelve men. On Friday March 6 they returned with a verdict: “Guilty”. The judge sentenced him to be hanged.

Winnebago County’s first public execution was scheduled for the afternoon of Friday March 27, 1857. It was a major event. People started crowding into town the evening before, coming from as far as Dubuque, Iowa. Two special trains arrived from the west at daybreak. Rockford was packed solid with horses, carriages and people. An estimated 8000 citizens gathered at Sheriff Church’s farm, a short distance from town. (Other newspapers estimated 15,000 and 20,000 attendees).^5,6

The prisoner arrived in a procession of five horse drawn carriages. The last carriage carried the Countryman family, father, brother, and sister. His wife and his mother chose to say their goodbyes at the jail. Two fire companies armed with sabers and carbines accompanied the procession. The armed guard escorted the prisoner safely to the scaffold.^5,6

The Reverend Hooper Crews began the ceremony with earnest prayer. The prisoner then made a short speech and expressed repentance and forgiveness for his crime. At seventeen minutes past the hour of two, the bolt was withdrawn. The trap door fell and Countryman was “swung into eternity”.⁵ The immense concourse of people did not move for some time. Only the sobs of the family were heard above the silence of the multitude.⁶

Before the body was taken down, Sheriff Church addressed the crowd. He praised and thanked them for their order. Then he spoke these words: “These painful proceedings being now concluded, and the sword of justice is about to be returned to its sheath, I hope never again to be drawn with so much severity”.⁵

The new anti-slavery party

In the 1850s, the issue of slavery absorbed the minds of the people, and none more so than Alonzo Chamberlain. We can only speculate on the roll politics played in Alonzo’s decision to move to Illinois. There is no doubt, however, that he was now in the center of the action.

Democrat Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois introduced a bill that would allow settlers to choose whether slavery would or would not exist within a territory. He hoped the bill would satisfy the interests of both the North and the South. The Kansas-Nebraska act dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty. This would likely extend slavery into the newly opening territories.

Douglas’ bill sparked outrage and protests in the northern states.  A small, dedicated group of individuals came together to pledge to fight against the spread of slavery. In a small school house in Ripon, Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, they organized a new party. They chose the name the “Republican Party”.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand”

On June 16, 1858 in Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln accepted the nomination of the Republican Party to oppose Stephen A. Douglas in the race for the U. S. Senate. In his speech accepting the nomination, he paraphrased a passage from the Bible, Mark 3:25: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Lincoln continued:

“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

These words obviously made a deep impression on Alonzo Chamberlain as Lincoln’s words from this event were quoted at Alonzo’s funeral forty-four years later. “Like Abraham Lincoln, he (Alonzo) thought and said this nation could not live part slave and part free”²

The Lincoln – Douglas Debates

The Senate campaign of 1858 involved seven three hour debates between the two candidates. Each debate was held in a different congressional district. The format was that the first candidate spoke for one hour, the second then had one hour and a half, and then the first had an half hour to finish. Spontaneous  comments, cheers and laughter from the audience punctuated the debates.

On August 27, 1858 the second debate was held at Freeport, Illinois about twenty miles southwest of Shirland. On a cool, damp day, special trains brought in an estimated 15,000 from all over northern Illinois.⁷ Freeport is the one debate location, if not more than one, that Alonzo would attend if possible.

At this location, Lincoln spoke first and answered the “interrogatories” which Douglas had raised in the previous debate. Douglas then began by complementing the audience for avoiding “vulgarity and blackguardism” while Lincoln was speaking. Douglas then spoke for an hour and a half, often playing the race card with an occasional racial slur and by repeatedly calling Lincoln’s party the “Black Republican Party”.

Lincoln then began his reponse:

“The first thing I have to say to you is a word in regard to Judge Douglas’s declaration about the ‘vulgarity and blackguardism’ in the audience- that no such thing, as he says, was shown by any Democrat while I was speaking. Now, I only wish, by way of reply on this subject, to say that while I was speaking, I used no ‘vulgarity or blackguardism’ toward any Democrat.” (Great laughter and applause)⁷

Douglas had long advocated that under popular sovereignty the settlers in each new territory would decide their own status as a slave or free state; and that this would allow northern and southern states to resume peaceful coexistence.

Lincoln, however, responded that the Dred Scott decision sealed the fate of the country with one of only two possible outcomes: the country would inevitably become either all slave or all free. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, a slave who moved to Wisconsin with his master, was not a U. S. citizen even though he was in a free territory. In other words, residence in a free territory did not make Scott free. Also, that Congress had no constitutional authority to prohibit slavery in any territory. The decision effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise, and all of other political compromises negotiated between the North and South over the past 30 years.

At Freeport, Stephen Douglas argued that, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, slavery could be excluded from territories of the United States by local legislation. This became know as the Freeport Doctrine.

The Presidential Election of 1860

Abraham Lincoln lost the 1858 Senate race. However, the debates of 1858 gave him national stature. At the Republican convention, May 18, 1860 in Chicago, Lincoln over took William H. Seward of New York on the third ballot and received the nomination for President. Republicans opposed the extension of slavery into the territories.⁸

Douglas’ Freeport doctrine and popular sovereignty pleased Democrats in Illinois. However, these angered Southern Democrats, and the national Democrat Party was in turmoil. In April at the Democratic Convention at Charleston, SC, delegates from the Southern states pulled out and no nomination could be made. They held a second convention in June at Baltimore, MD. Stephen Douglas got the Democrat Party nomination, but Southern Democrats nominated Vice President John C. Breckenridge, a slave owner from Kentucky. Both Douglas and Breckenridge claimed to be the official Democratic candidates.⁸

The Constitution Union Party nominated John Bell of Tennessee. They, like the Whig Party before them, believed the best strategy was to ignore the issue of slavery.

Lincoln understood the value of unity. He campaigned to keep the Party united. Douglas actively campaigned in both the North and in the South where he gave a passionate defense of the Union and strenuously opposed secession.

On election day, November 6, 1860, Alonzo Chamberlain cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln, as he would for every Republican Presidential candidate for the rest of his life. With about 40% of the popular vote, Lincoln won in all the northern states except New Jersey. This gave him 180 electoral votes, enough to win the electoral college and the election. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration in March, seven Southern states had seceded, and a month after Lincoln became president, the country became engaged in civil war.⁸

A complete victory in the battle at Antietam Creek might have decided the war, one way or the other

The rebellion of the Southern states and the Civil War opened the opportunity for Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves. President Lincoln first proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet in July 1862. However, his cabinet opposed it. Secretary of State William Seward suggested waiting for a Union victory so that it might be credible that the government could enforce it. Lincoln drew up the document and patiently waited for an elusive Union victory.⁹

In mid 1862, the Union suffered three devastating defeats at Shanandoah, Richmond and Manassas, Virginia. With the War going badly, the Democrats began an anti-war campaign. They saw the opportunity to take over the House of Representatives in the November mid-term election. To make things worse, France and Great Britain were enduring a cotton shortage and were considered legitimizing the Confederacy.^10,11

Confederate General Robert E. Lee, recognizing the dissent in the North, hoped a major battle won on Union soil might topple Lincoln’s congressional support and secure complete victory. His Confederate forces moved into West Virginia where Stonewall Jackson captured Harpers Ferry. Lee then moved his army to Sharpsburg, Maryland.

September 17, 1862, General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia met Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac at Antietam Creek. The two armies faced each other across a 30 acre corn field. In twelve hours of battle there were about 23,000 casualties. An estimated 3,650 died. It was the deadliest single day in all American military history.

 

To be continued…. Chapter 21 Harry Chamberlain– leaves Winnebago County for Clay County Iowa. Homesteader, teacher, politician, lawyer and family man.