A parcel of land on the northeast side of Winchester is at the center of an inquiry about who holds legal claim to the ground. Is it privately owned or is it a publicly-owned property deeded to the City of Winchester by a long-defunct organization to build a monument to Civil War-era soldiers and sailors? That appears to be the biggest question.
The almost 5-acre parcel of land sits off of Coultas Road and East Jefferson Street near Valley Tree Estates. A neighbor to the property, Lucy Reid, believes the ground was once designated a park by the Winchester chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The G.A.R. was a Civil War veterans’ community service organization. At the height of its powers near the turn of the 20th Century, it led to 6 U.S. Presidents getting elected and was influential in getting numerous Republican-led initiatives passed through Congress and the statehouse. The Winchester chapter, established sometime in the early 1870s was likely named after Frederick Hesse. Hesse, a Winchester resident, was killed at the Battle of Resaca in rural Georgia on May 15, 1864 as a part of Sherman’s “March to the Sea” campaign.
Reid told the Scott County Times that she became interested in the plot of ground after doing research on her own property’s origins. While doing her own research, she found that the land was named Soldiers Monument Park on plat maps. Through more work at the Winchester Public Library, Reid was led to the G.A.R. and soon found the defunct organization’s handwritten minutes in the archive. In provided copies of those minutes to the Winchester City Council and WLDS News, the parcel of land appears to have been deeded to the City of Winchester some time between 1898 to 1907. Despite the indication, Scott County Supervisor of Assessments Julie Moore told the Scott County Times that the legal description of the land and the ownership of the land is unclear, and no taxes have been paid on the property since that time.
Reid told the Winchester City Council as much during their meeting last week: “I went to the Title Company so many times that they asked me to leave and locked the door. I read every title transfer card from 1840 to 1940. I went to the courthouse, and I went to the basement of the basement, and I looked at the books. I can’t find a record of this property existing in Scott County, period.”
The G.A.R. minutes indicate that the intended use was for a public park with a dedicated monument, but it never came to fruition. The G.A.R. disbanded locally sometime in the 1940s when the final Civil War veterans who resided in the area died off. The national G.A.R. organization completely disbanded in 1956 after the final Civil War veteran member passed away at the age of 106.
Reid says that a fire where the deeds and some local records were house sometime in the 1980s is likely why there is a gap in the records, and may be why no property deed could be found.
The ground, which was assumed to be owned by the Frost Family, has been used by various Winchester-area farmers over the decades as a pasture for cattle, including current Winchester Mayor Rex McIntire. McIntire told the city council last week that he has never had to pay for use of the land and that if indeed the ground is a public park, he wouldn’t be upset about having to remove his herd and had no intentions of using it in the future.
Reid told the city council that it’s not just the intended use of the ground that’s the problem: “If nobody’s ever paid taxes on it, then people that are using it as private property are keeping those taxes from the rest of this community. We can’t afford to go another 150 years with nobody paying property taxes on this 5-acre plot. Taxes have been a hot topic in this town. Everybody here knows that if you own property, your responsibility as a property owner is to pay property taxes. It is a ‘I hope I buy this property and nobody catches up to me’ situation. So, that’s a lot of money. I’m not a property tax collector or decides how much the taxes are, and anybody that knows me would not ask me to calculate those taxes. But, it could be a park. We could have another park. There’s not reason that we can’t have another park, and parks are natural resources.”
Reid indicated that U.S. Department of Agriculture maps has the ground designated as a natural wetland area. Mayor McIntire indicated that ground turns into somewhat of a swamp in heavy periods of rain that even his cows attempt to avoid crossing because of the deep mud.
City Attorney John Paul Coonrood told the city council last week that ground’s ownership is all just a theory at the moment: “I mean, I’m all for putting a sidewalk there so people can walk in the area. Unless and until there is a deed, vesting title of that land to the city and unless that deed has been registered with the County Recorder, the city can’t just claim it. I don’t think that probate comes into it at all. If you don’t have a deed, the city just doesn’t own it. So, if the city doesn’t own it, then in theory it could be considered abandoned property, in which case it would exegete to the county not to the city. Honestly, I think we are just in the land of conjecture about who owns it. The only way to get passed that is probably just to pay Scott County Abstract Company to do a title search. If they can’t come up with a title, then that probably means that there isn’t a deed available. If there isn’t a deed available, I would be it qualifies as abandoned property and goes to the county probably with a cloud on the title from use by adjacent landowners. Under none of those situations do I see the property honestly going to the city.”
Mayor McIntire view of the situation is that the title search will at least give everyone involved a starting point to move forward: “To be honest, I really don’t understand the whole reasoning for it other than the fact that if it is deeded as a park, nobody should be benefiting from it financially as an individual. It should be part of the city parks. I’ve had use of the property for the past, I think, 6 years now or so. When it’s wet, it is really wet. The bottom area, like I said, is really a swamp. It’s a quagmire. The cattle won’t even cross it. They go up and around because they’ll go two feet deep in the mud. I’ve had concerns about maybe getting hung up in it. Someone recently asked me if I need it. I said that I didn’t. I’ve cut back on my cattle the last couple of years. It doesn’t bother me losing it. I just hope that we getting something straightened out about it pretty quick.”
McIntire says that the reason the property was likely never improved upon was due to runoff from a coal mine that used to be located a few miles north of the property, upstream that spilled into it. He also noted that Veterans Park in Winchester was also built about the same time the property was maybe deeded to the city and funds were more or less directed toward improving that park besides this particular patch of swampy ground because it was likely seen as more viable.
Reid sees utilizing the ground as a park with walking trails as an opportunity to increase opportunities for outdoor recreation in Winchester that fits within a larger initiative to increase the amount of public green space in the community. As a part of her research, Reid has contacted the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and says that the land would qualify for grants for conservation and possibly for other recreation-based grants if it is indeed a publicly owned plot.
At the advice of his legal counsel, Robert “Ed” Frost declined to comment to the Scott County Times on the discussions surrounding the ownership of the ground.
City Attorney Coonrod estimated that the title search, which he says would cost the city approximately $200 to get completed, would likely be completed sometime prior to the Winchester City Council’s scheduled October meeting.