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| Levi Zeigler Leiter |
Nestled away in the
rolling hills of the Franklin County area of southern Illinois lays the
forgotten town that, in 1904, was only a breath away from being the nation's
capital. It was here that in 1901 a Chicago multi-millionaire named Levi
Zeigler Leiter and his son Joseph brought the family fortune and began
building a small empire. After buying 8000 acres of land, Joseph started sinking
the coal mine that would become the original headquarters for the nationally
known Zeigler Coal Company.
Leiter
was so sure that his mine would be the largest and the most modern that he used
champagne instead of water to mix the cornerstone concrete. He threw in a couple expensive diamond rings and his gold watch into
the mix. Engraved in the cornerstone was the date of 2004 because Leiter
claimed his mine modernization would be a hundred years ahead of its time.
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| Employees Inside the Ziegler Company Store. |
In
1903 Joseph began clearing the land around the mine, and with a blank check, the blessing of his father, Levi Zeigler Leiter, and the support from his
wealthy friends from Chicago, Joseph began making plans for the future. Among
the Leiter family friends were super-rich Potter Palmer, Marshall Field, and
George Pullman, who made up a large portion of the nation's
wealth. Along with wealth came prestige and power that could open many important doors. One of the doors that were always open was the door
to the White House, where the President often granted political favors through
significant financial contributions.
The
Leiters had contributed large sums of money to the presidential campaign of
Theodore Roosevelt, and the time had come for them to call upon the President
for a pay-back political favor. There was not enough satisfaction for the
Leiters in the claim of getting Roosevelt elected President of the United
States because they wanted something that would elevate them to the very top
of society and overshadow everything others had accomplished.
In
1880 George Pullman, the owner and founder of the Pullman railroad car and
coach company, had built his own town just south of Chicago, and the Leiters saw an opportunity to do the same in Franklin County. President
Roosevelt always considered himself a country boy at heart and loved
hunting and fishing, and the Leiters knew they had the area that would satisfy
the President's favorite pastime. Here on the Leiter property in Franklin County
was an abundance of quail and ducks, buffalo and deer, and plenty of rabbits
and squirrels, and they knew it was the perfect spot for the President to live.
Joseph hired the same architect who had laid out the Washington DC design to visit Franklin County to design the town he planned to build.
The
design would be likened to the nation's capital, with a circle and streets
running like spokes from a wagon wheel. As Leiter began building his
town, he named it Zeigler in honor of his father's middle name. The
Leiters and their wealthy friends knew it was time to flex their powerful
financial muscles, call in political favors, and attempt to convince the
President to move the White House and the nation's capital to the Leiters
Franklin County town of Zeigler.
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| Zeigler Coal Mine |
The
political contacts were made, the lobbying began, and the wheels were put into
motion for the big move to have Zeigler as the Nation's Capital. Everything
was moving in the right direction for the Leiters, and Joseph opened
his coal mine on June 8th, 1904 and brought the first load of coal to the
surface. His future now looked brighter than ever, but it would be short-lived.
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| Company Provided Homes at the Zeigler #1 Mine. (1905) |
The next day after the mine's grand opening, Joseph's father died from a rare
heart disease, and Joseph's future suddenly looked dim. Not only was his
future in jeopardy, but the blank checks he had enjoyed most of
his life would probably be in jeopardy, and his chances of getting the
Presidential White House moved to Zeigler died with his powerful father. Labor
problems with the Klu Klux Klan and the unions began to take a toll on the man
who claimed that he would continuously operate "union free," and it came to
the point where he had to struggle to protect his own property.
He
built a large fence around his mine that resembled an army fort, mounted
large searchlights and several large calibers of "Gattling Guns" around
his mine and the town's entrances, and issued orders to the gun-slinging thugs
he had hired as security guards, that they were to "shoot to kill"
any trespassers. Joseph continued to build his town, which consisted of a large
two-story colonial-style office building in the center of the circle and a
sizeable personal home that was located along with a company store on the circle.
He built schools and a hospital and donated land so the local churches could
be built. Joseph's "master & slave" attitude finally led to his
downfall in the coal industry, and after a few severe mine explosions, he got
out of the business in 1910 and leased his holdings to the Bell and Zoller Coal
Company. His dreams and plans were shattered, and he returned to Chicago and
continued to be very successful in other businesses.
Bell
and Zoller kept the town of Zeigler moving in forward progress and reached
its peak in 1926 when it boasted a population of nearly 7000 residents, 3500
employees, and 174 businesses. When the great depression hit the nation, few
people in Zeigler recognized its impact of it. The Bank of Zeigler was one of
only a few banks that survived the depression by flying in gross amounts of
money from St. Louis. To show investors their desire for survival,
the bank officials asked for and received special permission and plates
from the US Treasury department. They printed their own money and put it into
circulation. The business began moving from Zeigler, and with the decline in
the coal business, so did many residents.
During
the early 1940s, a Memorial Board was erected on the circle that honored men serving in the military. Surprisingly, the small town of
Zeigler provided over 450 men to the military during the war efforts, and the
board was later replaced with a stone monument that honored those who lost
their lives in the wars. As the years passed, the demand for coal continued to
dwindle, as did the population of Zeigler and today, the town has a population of
1749 (in 2016) and is a mere shell of what it once had been.
Today
there is no trace of the large coal mine, the mine office in the circle, or
the hospital and company store. The large home Leiter built for his residence
has been remodeled and is still a private residence on the circle.
Once in a while, the name of Joseph Leiter may be mentioned in a conversation
between history buffs or from an elderly resident, but to the younger
generation, Zeigler is just the small town where they live. They have no idea
that their town was once within a human breath of becoming the home of the
Presidential White House and the Nation's capitol.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
