Published March 18, 2024
By Rob Mellon
Men and boys gathered for a picture across the street from the Prairie House at 12
th
Street and Broadway.
(Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County )
Alstyne’s Prairie was a tract of undeveloped land that ran from Broadway to Chestnut streets and from 12th to 18th streets. In 1818, the land was originally titled to John Meek, a veteran of the War of 1812. After he sold the property in 1819, the land changed ownership several times, with the sheriff’s office even owning the property for a while. In 1844 David Nevins and John Alstyne purchased the tract. Although the “Prairie” was considered to be on the outskirts of town in the 1840s, it became a favorite spot for the residents of Quincy, and from that point forward it became known as “Alstyne’s Prairie.” The prairie was also the location of several Civil War encampments and even Quincy’s first baseball game.
Across the road from Alstyne’s Prairie was the Prairie House, considered the farthest outpost of the city on the northwest corner of 12th and Broadway Streets. The building contained a hotel on the second floor, dry goods store, and a barroom and dance hall. It was built by Henry “Prairie” Meyer around 1850. The building had an old-fashioned pump in front so farmers coming down the dirt roads from the northern part of the county could water horses and livestock and go inside for some refreshment for themselves.
In 1861, William Miller and Frank Pastorius purchased the Prairie House from Meyer. After the Civil War, it was owned by Christ Wise and Arthur Bitle. During their ownership it became a site of large raucous parties. On Sunday nights the parties could have 300-400 people dancing the night away. According to the May 29, 1869 Quincy Weekly Whig, Police Chief McGraw picked twelve men to accompany him and raided the dance hall. During the rush to escape through doors, windows, and jumping off porches, the police manage to detain ten women and twenty men plus forty or fifty others who claimed to be boarders of the house. “We are not prepared to say that the house is bad as reported, but we are glad to know that our Chief of Police, Mr. McGraw, is determined to put a stop to the lawlessness which runs riot in our city on Sundays, and that hereafter no ‘Dance House,’ with its noisy inmates will offend the sensibilities of our people.”
The wide-open fields of Alstyne’s Prairie were far from flat with rolling hills, groves of trees, and Whipple Creek, which ran through its center. The creek, notorious for emitting a pungent odor, was eventually filled in with concrete by the WPA during the Great Depression, but Whipple Creek was very much a central part of the geography of the Prairie in the period after the Civil War.
Beautiful and open, Alstyne’s Prairie became a favorite destination for strollers, picnickers, horseback riders, wandering gypsies, and community events from the 1840s until the 1890s. There was a well-worn farmer’s road which ran down through Whipple Creek’s valley. A section of that path which featured a very dense grove of trees and heavy undergrowth became known as “Lovers Lane” and cut through an area between modern-day 14th and 16th and Lind and College streets.
Alstyne’s Prairie was also the site of the first lynching in the history of Adams County, an action which took place on May 31,1865. A group of Missouri bushwhackers robbed the post office in Fowler, Illinois, on May 23, 1865. Soon a posse led by City Marshall Renfrow and General Benjamin Prentiss, tracked down the bushwhackers near Lima Lake in northern Adams County. A gunfight ensued in which several outlaws were wounded, and Thomas Trimble, a Marceline resident, was killed.
As a result of the entanglement, several outlaws were captured, arrested, and brought to the Adams County jail in Quincy, including the leader of those Missouri outlaws Thomas Rose. A mob of citizens and several Union soldiers convalescing at the military hospital located on Washington Square stormed the jail and dragged a badly wounded Thomas Rose into the street chanting, “Hang him.” The mob took Rose to a tree in the dense grove around Lovers Lane and did just that. Eventually a grand jury indicted several members of the mob who participated in the vigilante justice that took Rose’s life. Unsurprisingly, those indictments were later quashed.
Prior to the lynching, a man named John Hogan had planned to build an amusement park in the section of the Prairie where Rose was hanged, but the violent events of May 31, 1865, put an end to those plans.
The hanging of Thomas Rose was the darkest incident in the history of the Alstyne’s tract, and although it stopped Hogan’s plan for an amusement park, it did not end all leisure activities and revelry on the Prairie.
It was still common for circuses like the Yankee Robinson Tent Show to set up the large circus tents at 12th and Broadway on the Prairie. P.T. Barnum also used Alstyne’s Prairie when he came to Quincy in 1883, but since a new building had been constructed at 12th and Broadway, Barnum set up his massive tents further east at 16th and Broadway.
Due to the amount of activity on the tract, John Alstyne offered the land to the city to create a park. The city council rejected the offer. As the land was already being used for leisure activities, the council seemed to have little appetite for taking on the maintenance and liability of running a park at that time.
Sources
“The Barnum Show.” Quincy Daily Herald, October 19, 1883.
“Circuit Court, Wednesday June 21.” Quincy Whig and Republican, July 1, 1865, 3.
“Excitement Wednesday Night.” Quincy Daily Herald, June 3, 1865, 3.
“Former Pioneer Died At St. Joe.” Quincy Daily Whig, May 15, 1902, 5.
Lane, Beth. “Alstyne’s Prairie & The Circus Riot.” Quincy Herald Whig, March 10, 2019.
Lane, Beth. “Man Hung in 1865 for Bushwacking, Various Other Crimes.” Quincy Herald Whig,
July 14, 2019.
“The New Park.” Daily Quincy Herald, February 4, 1879, 3.
“Prairie House Damaged.” Quincy Daily Whig, June 6, 1901, 8.
“Raid On A Dance House.” Quincy Weekly Whig, May 29, 1869, 4.
“Scenes From Way Back When The Prairie House At Twelfth And Broadway Was Quincy’s
Outpost.” Quincy Daily Herald, July 26, 1925, 2.
“When Quincy Was The Scene Of Lynching.” Quincy Daily Herald, February 24, 1917, 3.
Circus Tents at Alstyne Prairie
