I could not find a copy of the entire story dated July 16, 2014, but found the draft for the original, you might enjoy reading it. I you like this story I have plenty more.
Know your local history ...
A front-page comparison article in a recent Morton Times News compared real estate taxes to surrounding communities and behold Morton was listed with the lowest rate per assessed value. No wonder so many people migrate to Morton. Naturally, it fired up my curiosity gene and required follow up. I found one of the reason but certainly not all and a subject affecting the community just like South Carolina's congressman Trey Gawdy's IRS investigation, cannot be brushed aside and forgotten, I intent to touch on it again. From immediate information obtained from reliable sources I discovered that 115 homes had been sold in Morton thus far this year of which 14 were new construction for 4.5 million dollars or $330K average per home. To maintain such a home the owner must have a matching income not only to pay real estate taxes but income and or capital gain taxes as well as FICA and what have you, and as such fits my criteria. Pay taxes, pursue gainful employment and by doing so enhance and honor the community
A good question to ask is what made Morton so attractive to migrate here. A huge factor in raising Morton out of the mud was the commissioning of the Illinois Traction System (ITS) in 1907 according to a Mr. Grant Coniber a Tazewell county Supervisors and the first agent for the Illinois terminal Railroad that connected Morton with down town Peoria. Supposedly the idea of running a railroad from Morton to Peoria was brought before the village council in 1904 and work commenced in 1905. The road bed was dug out by hand and filled with rocks hauled in by team of horses as reported by a Mr.Yentes who hired out his wagon team for that purpose. The founder of the ITS was a Mr. William Brown McKinley a devoted republican who later in the 1920 served in the US Senate and concurrently controlled his interurban empire he had acquired throughout central Illinois. Unclear to me at this writing is how Mr. McKinley financed his empire privately or government funded. But I am absolutely, positively sure that the village fathers in 1904, did not purchase a defunct railroad in order to lure in a new or replace an existing railroad with village, county or stimulus funds.
Mechanically, Mr. McKinley electrified horse drawn street cars with power supplied to moving trains with continuous overhead line running along the track suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Locomotives or multiple units pick up power from the contact wire with pantographs on their roofs that press a conductive strip against it with a spring or air pressure.
That made me think of a more recent road construction project. When it was announced in the Peoria Journal Star that we are about to lose the tunnel and that several bridges were to be replaced I looked out my window and saw a chain link fence along I-74 that had to be removed to make room for the construction and an idea formed that I would apply for the job removing this fence and make a few pennies hauling the junk steel away. By telephone I got trough to a pretty high-ranking individual in the IDT who extensively quizzed me if I was paying prevailing wages and if I was a certified union contractor. I chuckled and hung up. Incidentally, that was during the Presidential election race, when both major party candidates trumpeted in unison that we need to help small businesses.
Much of railroads and high way construction comes into focus if one reads Thomas DiLorenzo book entitled "Organized Crime" in chapter 9, he points out that President Lincoln in a special June 1861 session began work on the Pacific Railway bill. That, so I was taught connected the east coast with west coast highlighted with the driving of a golden spike on its completion somewhere in the middle. Beings that as President he had the right to choose the eastern starting point may have had something to do with him choosing Council Bluff, Iowa as the eastern starting point, because of a large parcel of land he had purchased in that town in 1857.
Professor Thomas James DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland, Sellinger School of Business. He identifies himself as an adherent of the Austrian School of economics and is a prominent member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
The local Peoria to Morton Electrical Railroad had its terminal roughly in front of the current PCN bank building. Morton enjoyed its service from 1907 through 1955, when the modern Automobile and the improved roads finally got the upper hand. Just think how much damage the Auto mobile has done to inner American cities. It wiped out business district after business district not only in Morton but all over the world. Thus, shopping centers came into beings just to provide parking for the auto mobiles. But many just cannot comprehend that building a plaza for the young ones to gather will not revive downtown to pre automobile status. Futuristically the shopping centers too are doomed. Anything one’s little heart desires is available on line and on your door step within a few days simply be ordering it through Amazon or other vendors on line, and when thrones are perfected it will knock out UPS and Federal Express and other services similar like that. Folks call that progress.
OK! What was the name of the rail line that run between Morton and Peoria. The bed of the old track is now called the Carl "Bud" Schmitt Bicycle trail.(who was he?) Call or write, winners will be invited to a cup of coffee on July 28, 2014 at 10 AM at Eli's.
Rudy >rudyheu@gmail.com
REMINDER. Hopefully you marked July 22, 2014, 7 PM on your calendar to come watch a "A strole down Morton's Memory Lane ..:" at the Freedom Hall. Admission free.
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