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LaGrange, Sr., Isaac.

[Autograph letter, signed, on the development, etc. of Paris, Illinois.]

Paris, Edgar County, Illinois, 17 January 1868. 12” x 8”. 4 pp. in ink on white lined paper. CONDITION: Very good, light staining affecting page one, light toning, a few minor separations along old folds, edgewear at margins, but no losses to the text.

A substantive letter on circumstances in Paris, Illinois one year before it became a city.

Born in Albany, New York, Isaac LaGrange, Sr. (1799–1881) moved to Paris, Illinois as early as the mid-1850s. Paris is the county seat and largest city of Edgar County, and in this 1868 letter LaGrange estimates that there are currently some four or five thousand inhabitants in Paris. The letter discusses the development of the area; prices of land, commodities, homes, and farm buildings; and the presence of the Campbellites, a religious group in the area. As noted here, LaGrange’s sons, including Isaac LaGrange, Jr. (1858–1919), ran a profitable building business in Paris. From 1857 to 1868, LaGrange Jr. purchased lots, built houses and buildings, and sold properties at a profit—in addition to building by contract for others. In 1868, LaGrange, Jr. entered the banking business in Kansas City, Kansas, where he became a leading citizen. Isaac LaGrange, Sr. died in Paris in 1881. The letter is addressed to Abram V. LaGrange (1841–1909) of Albany, New York, who served in the Civil War in the 1st Regiment U.S. Sharp Shooters and the 177th New York Volunteer Infantry. 

SOME REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES

“I find…that our spiritual directors are more than usually busy. Every denomination here are [sic] holding daily meetings and striving for converts and I understand with great effect the Christians or Campbellites as they are called takes [sic] the lead. There has [sic] been two new churches erected here this past season, Campbellites & Episcopalians. My boys built the Episcopalian but as yet not quite finished, they have all the work they can do with all the hands they can raise. Our town has improved more this past season than it has since I have been here. It begins to appear quite city like & contains about 4 or 5 thousand inhabitants. Jacob & Isaac [LaGrange, Jr.] still work together and are doing a good business.”

“We had quite a favorable fall for business, the roads being quite good and so continue up to this time. We have had three falls of snow varying from 4 to six inches. Each warm weather between the snow storms took it all off so that each snow found the ground entirely bare but the inhabitants from the adjoining neighborhoods came from all quarters on runners and the county court house square was surrounded with all sorts of conveyances from a pole jumper to the roughest ox sled, conveying to the eastern spectator no very splendid ideas of the mechanism of our country. I have seen but one cutter that deserves the name of cutter since I have been here. It has been quite cold for a few days or since New Years. For reason of [the] cold the hands have quitted work in the shop waiting for warm weather. Isaac & Jake still continue work at a house they are finishing, one of the best houses that is in town. I have been to work in shop every day until today. I thought it cost more for coal to warm it than my work would be worth.”

“Our crops was [sic] rather short of an average on last season, wheat is worth $2.40 corn is fifty cents & pounds [of] potatoes one dollar. Money matters rather right. You write my age about 60 years. I shall be 69 the last day of May next and my health has been better for the last two years than it has been for 20 years, appetite good and sleep sound. Isaac sold his farm a few days ago for 25 dollars per acre. Lands do not appear to be worth as much on proportion as town property. The boys were offered 5 thousand dollars for their store in town. They asked $5,500 for it. It is only 20 feet wide & 95 ft. deep, the building covers the whole of the ground and rents for 5 hundred and fifty dollars a year, except the basement which would rent from 200 to 250 dollars a year if finished but they have been so crowded with work and owing to the scarcity of hands they have not had time to finish it.”

“Farms within two miles of town will improve with good buildings are worth 100 dollars per acre. Lands within 6 or 8 [miles] from town are worth from 12 to 30 dollars per acre. It depends upon the state of cultivation. The lands of this country is not surpassed by any in the state for richness of soil but many require draining and when well drained are considered to be of the best quality. If our part of the country had been settled by York State & eastern farmers it would have been by this time the finest part of the United States. Wheat does not as well on the prairies as it does on timber lands. Sometimes we have excellent crops. Last season the wheat was of excellent quality but the growth was light. Wheat does better on the adjoining timber lands than it does on the prairies but this country farming is miserable and with the best of soil crops could not be expected from the miserable cultivation most farms receive. Timothy grass and clover does well, sheep growing is getting to be quite a business but corn, pork, and beef are the staple commodities of the country. I see by the reports of the New York Paper that Illinois sends more cattle to [the] New York City market by far than any other state in the union.” 

“Neither have I had any reliable news from France respecting our fortune…You may have gone over to the great Nation…at Paris and then have learned all about it…If you have heard anything or know how to obtain the funds you had better be mean[?] and only pay me a few hundred thousand and I will be quiet if you have not been there…I think that there would be no harm in making some inquiry concerning our Canada cousins as they were the first in making the discovery. They may have got it and are now withholding our honest dues which at these dull times would to me and perhaps to you be a great benefit…We could loan it at 10 percent which set aside the profits would afford our benevolent and Christian dispositions a great satisfaction to think how we were accommodating our fellow beings.”

A lively letter revealing circumstances in Paris, Illinois during an important phase in its development.

REFERENCES: Link, Paxson. The Link Family (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, 1951), p. 282; “Abram LaGrange” at Find A Grave online; “Local History” at Paris Public Library online.

Item #8933

Price: $475.00

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