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CHAPTER VII THE CAIRO CITY AND CANAL COMPANY-SUCCEEDED BY THE CAIRO CITY PROPERTY TRUST-CAIRO FROM JUNE 13, 1846, TO DECEMBER 23, 1853 H OLBROOK had taken the lead in everything relating to the organization and operations of the Cairo City and Canal Company, and now that it could go on no longer, he took the lead also in its transformation into another company or concern to take up the work the other had to lay down. He no doubt regretted the alternative of going on and into utter bankruptcy, or turning over the enterprise to others; but seeing that it was unavoidable, he accepted the situation, and, like any other brave-hearted man, sought to make the most favorable arrangement he could for the old company and its stockholders. Their enterprise had been a going one for five or ~ix years at most, and the work of settlement and the change from the old to the new management seem to have required half of that length of time. There were many interests and persons to be consulted, both at home and abroad, and for that and many other reasons the negotiations proceeded slowly. There were creditors of every kind and description, both secured and unsecured; but as a matter 0.£ fact, those actually and well secured were very few. The first news that the enterprise was in a failing condition sent down everywhere the values of all kinds of its property. Its lands, its site for a city, could scarcely have depreciated faster or fallen lower in value; and had there been no creditors, there is no telling what could have been done. The geographical position of the place was all that saved the undertaking from complete destruction. The people interested could not come to the conclusion that they were wrong and that there was no reasonable chance to build a city here. At all events, their interests led them to another attempt under new and what seemed to be more favorable circumstances. The nature and terms of the final arrangement are so fully set forth in the report of the committee of the stockholders of the new enterprise, made September 29, 1858, parts of which are quoted elsewhere, that we need not refer to them again. The first thing done, in pursuance of the new arrangement, was the conveyance, June 13, 1846, by the Cairo City and Canal Company of all of its property and estate to Thomas S. Taylor, of Philadelphia, and Charles Davis, of New York City, preparatory to the formation of a trust to take charge of the property and the enterprise as described in the report of September 29, 1858, above referred to. This deed of June 13, 1846, is recorded in Register Book A, on pages 123, etc. This 58 THE CAIRO CITY AND CANAL COMPANY 59 deed was followed by the Declaration of Trust of September 29, 1846. executed by Taylor and Davis, as Trustees, and thirteen other persons, whose names are as follows: Illinois Exporting Company, J. Robertson, Richard H. Bayard, James S. Newbold, Herman Cope, T. S. Taylor, Vincent Eyre, Thomas Barnwall, assignee of Wright and Company, John Hibbert, Henry Webb, Martha Allinson, James McKillop, and Thomas Lloyd. This Declaration of Trust is recorded in Book N, on pages 465, etc. From the time of the Declaration of Trust, September 29, 1846, to December 23, 1853, the date of the first sales of lots in Cairo by the Trustees, we have the long period of seven and a quarter years. This delay in offering lots and lands for sale caused many complaints. The people knew something of the Holbrook plan in this regard, and it seemed to them the management was going to follow Holbrook's policy, which was to retain the title to all the real estate and give only long leases thereof. Concerning this long delay and its effect upon the people, Addison H. Sanders, in his newspaper, "The Cairo Delta," of September 20, 1849, wrote as follows, under the heading "Cairo-Good Bye To It": As we have before remarked, Cairo does not grow any, because no one can buy or build, the property being in the hands of a company who are not yet prepared to sell. The stockholders of this company are principally eastern gentlemen, and the company decidedly American and represented by Charles Davis, of New York, and Thomas Taylor, of Philadelphia, who hold the property in trust. We came to Cairo under...

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