A clipping of Apr. Ceres Partners. Station, the former rail depot that spans an entire block of Madison Street, He rounds out the list for individual owners of central Illinois prime farm ground with just over 7,100 acres. He also owns the NFL team the Jacksonville Jaguars. Some were even shot and killed by Irish tenants. Historical Society dinner/lecture of 2011 was on November 4 at The Many know Beaver as a nationally recognized about 28,000 Logan County acres and a few in Tazewell County. The opinions of this writer are not necessarily those of Farm Progress/Informa. The most serious blow to a family member`s personal finances came recently when a $5.5 million investment by Michael and his namesake son, the carpenter, went under. William Scully is well known. Some were even shot and killed by Irish tenants. For the first time in ten years the tenants of thousands of acres in the County of Logan, Ill., and other tracts of land in various parts of the country have received a visit from their landlord, William Scully. The ground is managed by Rob Woodrow of Farmland Solutions and Craig Thompson of First Mid Ag Services. Scully Estates of Logan County, Illinois. Beavers early research Self-made billionaire owner of the car parts manufacturer Flex-N-Gate, Khan comes in sixth in this survey of prime central Illinois farmland, with just over 8,700 acres. Heres a look at the top 10 absentee landowners in central Illinois, and where they own farmland. Some were even shot and killed by Irish tenants. In that capacity, he recently completed a 12-year project in which he oversaw the installation of 700 miles of drainage tile on Scully land. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The main concern of this book is with the American holdings of the Irish landowner, William Scully. Tried at Clonmel assizes in 1849 for shooting two sons of a tenant during an eviction, he was not convicted, but at the Kilkenny assizes in 1865, he was found guilty of assaulting Bridget Teahan, the wife of one of his tenants, sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, and ordered to pay Teahan 80 in damages. (1879), 1433; E. D. Steele, Irish land and British politics: tenant-right and nationality, 18651870 (1974), 712; H. E. Socolofsky, Landlord William Scully (1979); R. V. Comerford, review of H. E. Socolofsky, Landlord William Scully (1979), IHS, xxii (1980), 86; K. T. Hoppen, Elections, politics and society in Ireland, 18321885 (1984), 128; NHI, v, 448, 747; W. E. Vaughan, Landlords and tenants in mid-Victorian Ireland (1994), 345, The Dictionary of Irish Biography is a project of the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin, D02 HH58, +353 1 609 0600, website, Accessibility | Privacy| Cookie policy| Cookie settings, Copyright Dictionary of Irish Biography 2023, Originally published October 2009 as part of the Dictionary of Irish Biography, Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International. 4. -- "Lord" William Scully, who is one of the largest individual land owners in the United States, this week transferred to his wife all his lands in Logan County, Ill., amounting to about. Historical Society dinner/lecture of 2011 was on November 4 at The Scully's son, known as "Young" Michael, and his daughter-in-law, Nanchen, rehabilitated the Weber House on South Seventh Street, as well as the Hickox House downtown, which is home to Norb Andy's. This was an interesting exercise for me. He rounds out the list for individual owners of central Illinois prime farm ground with just over 7,100 acres. According to my research, the church is the largest absentee owner of prime central Illinois farm ground. ''They don`t sell anything if they can help it,'' one family associate said. > "It pretty much fell into my lap," he says. His oldest son is a carpenter in Vermont. Background details that you might want to know about William include: ethnicity is . Michael and Peter`s father, Thomas, had protected most of his estate from taxes before he died in 1961 by giving it to his wife, Violet, and his sons. authority on Abraham Lincoln, but his knowledge of another "I have only one interest in Springfield," says Scully, "and that's Union Station. William Scully was an Irish aristocrat with land-owning family roots going back 500 years, and both he and his family members were known as heavy-handed landlords in Ireland. They are managed by Westchester Management Group Inc., based in Champaign. ''I`ll tell you, when we were cleaning out the hog pens we used to think a lot about our dream house in the south of France and what a different lifestyle we were following,'' said Michael, who like Peter retains a slight English accent. At that time, more than 7,000 acres of the Scully land . The Scully holdings in Illinois have survived two serious threats in modern times. on agriculture, then returned for his second attempt to make his Ribeiro began investing in farmland in central Illinois in the early 1980s, following his success as a businessman and entrepreneur in Brazil. Trained in Ireland`s marshy farm fields, he knew American lands could be drained and tamed. Based in South Bend, Ind., Ceres Partners comes in at No. William Scully was an Irish aristocrat with land-owning family roots going back 500 years, and both he and his family members were known as heavy-handed landlords in Ireland. Coming in at a distant third with less than half the acreage of either of the top two landowners is Farmland Partners. WILLIAM SCULLY'S METHODS; How the Notorious Land Monopolist Treats His Tenants. Farmland Partners is a farmland real estate investment trust (REIT), which is sometimes described as a mutual fund that holds real estate. Scully had the persistence and financial resources to take the long view of land development on the American frontier. farmers as a result. He maintains that he was never so much committed to preserving the historic building. Mobile number (602) 721-3768 . Abraham Lincoln in Logan County, Illinois 1834-1860. explored the vast farmland holdings of the Scully family In 1972, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency decided that a creek running through Scully land near Cayuga in Livingston County was actually a navigable waterway and that his 4,000 cattle were polluting it. in Logan, Sangamon and Tazewell. ''We must be responsible toward the land and be leaders in conservation of it so as to preserve it for future generations and for the people who farm it.''. Friends like to say that Scully was New Age before there was New Age. No Scully land in Illinois has been offered for sale since the mid-1800s, though some has been taken or given over for highways, schools, parks and even a 4-acre cemetery for the farmers and field hands who worked Scully land, family members said. Farmland Partners is a farmland real estate investment trust (REIT), which is sometimes described as a mutual fund that holds real estate. 6. He is reportedly the largest individual farmland owner in the U.S., and it also appears he is the largest individual owner of prime central Illinois farmland. Wet prairie land acquired in central Illinois midway between Chicago and Saint Louis, later to be crossed by rail and eventually drained by ditch and tile-contains some of the most productive farmland in the United States. Their combined holdings are said to be valued at more than $120 million. He was the The Scully family derives the majority of its income from leasing the land. Great Plains Quarterly He devised what became known as the Scully lease which set rents at lower rates but bound tenants to follow set crop rotations and other advanced agricultural practices. The opinions of this writer are not necessarily those of Farm Progress/Informa. William inherited land, but he set off in the mid-1800s to make his fortune in America. land was not conducive to raising sheep, especially with the The remaining copies were strategically sent to many of the state's political elite. Page Generated in: 0.123 seconds (using 43 queries). local individual, William Scully, was the focus of his November Family members can give to charities out of their annual payments, but not directly from their trusts. Walden said the family recently paid off the loan. Sometime between Scully Estates of Logan County, Illinois. Beavers early research Socolofsky gives Scully a fairly high mark as a landlord, claiming that the agricultural ladder-tenant to owner-opera tor-functioned fairly well, even though the tenant could not buy Scully land. Un- 79 LANDLORD WILLIAM SCULLY confirmed stories from later years state that John's mother married, that she came to the United States with her husband, and that they became Scully tenants in Logan County, where they failed to pay rent-at least at times without being threatened with eviction by a landlord who was not hesitant 1875 and 1887 he had bought over 12,000 acres "from private sellers" If you have ever seen a map of the productive soils of Illinois, you will notice that the prime soils generally make a triangle that runs from Champaign to Springfield to Peoria. He was the By 1888, he had nearly 30,000 in Logan, 600 in Tazewell, 8400 in in Illinois and other parts of the mid-west. He traveled to England to attend college instruction In the second half of the 19th century, William Scully purchased nearly a quarter-million acres of farmland throughout the Midwest, much of it in central Illinois. Email addresses. explored the vast farmland holdings of the Scully family The prime soils of central Illinois have the highest concentration of absentee landowners as measured by the per-capita number of professional farm managers. Scully himself was injured in the affray. wscully@earthlink.net . The project includes a dramatic reconstruction of Union Station's original 110-foot clock tower, crowned by a 40-foot flagpole, both of which were removed from the building in the 1940s. Re-printed with permission by Prairie Farmer. Great Plains Quarterly Vol. He was an advocate of the latest agricultural techniques and an expert at estate management. "We try to embark on only one crusade at a time here," Smith laughs. William Scully was an Irish aristocrat with land-owning family roots going back 500 years, and both he and his family members were known as heavy-handed landlords in Ireland. similar to the type he was familiar with in Ireland. If not, that's fine, too," he says. Paul has authored For several years after, Scully leased Union Station to the state, which used the building as office space for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and eventually bought it in 1999 for a mere $270,000. fortune in the larger and more wide-open spaces of America. He got in when land was cheap, buying wet prairie in central Illinois, subhumid prairie near the western frontier in Kansas and Nebraska. Accredited & Certified Agricultural Consultants, Illinois Society of Farm Managers & Rural Appraisers. Email questions to ispfmra@countryside-marketing.com. Premiere Farm Properties and Global Ag Properties USA. He is the author of William Scully and the "Union Station is a one-of-a-kind design, and it's going to look exactly as it looked in 1898," says Bill Borgognoni, lead architect for the project. the vast drainage system, enlarging and maintaining by adding grass Great Plains Studies He learned this after investigating Gates purchase of the 100 Circles farm in eastern Washington by one of Gates holding companies. fertilizers, pesticides, livestock hormones-were either eliminated, administered in greatly reduced quantities, or replaced with organic matter. He eventually owned a total of 211,000 acres in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, including 30,000 acres in Logan County, Ill. alone. It was a cold January day in 2021 when Eric OKeefe, editor and founder of The Land Report, walked up to the podium at the Land Expo in Iowa and announced Bill Gates as Americas largest individual farmland owner. The church is not a new player in the world of farmland investing. It was the same year that his son and daughter-in-law had taken over Union Station, leading Scully to embark on what he calls "the last major quest of my life.". first to use a drainage system in Logan County, and Scully tenant farmers https://www.nytimes.com/1906/08/26/archives/lord-scully-as-landlord-aged-owner-of-over-200000-acres-dropping.html. These two entities are investment vehicles for the pension fund giant TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund), which has grown to be the largest institutional investor in farmland worldwide under the guidance of Jose Minaya. comes in at No. William Scully immigrated from Ireland twice, the first time with intentions of raising sheep like his family and his fellow Irish landowners had done for years - for centuries. ''We have tried to make another fortune, but you have to be lean and mean and tough as hell, and so far we haven`t done it,'' said Michael, who is known less for his business acumen than for his quirky but considerable personal charm, and his environmental and conservation activism. They had tried to resurrect Springfield`s Union Station as an upscale shopping and restaurant mall, and though their renovation efforts were praised, the project never attracted enough customers to survive. Were also offering a home delivery option as an added convenience for friends of the paper. waterways, small dams and promoting -- "Lord" William Scully, who is one of the largest individual land owners in the United States, this week transferred to his wife all his lands in Logan County, Ill., amounting to about 30,000 acres. The unique land system that he used on his 225,000 acres of American agricultural land, farmed by some fifteen hun dred tenants at the time of his death, attracted attention to this "most exten sive American landowner." William Scully possessed an extraordinary determination to succeed as a landlord. While Michael`s politics follow his free spirit (''I once voted for Barry Commoner for president''), his business-minded brother regards himself as a moderate Republican. Click here to subscribe, or simply show your support for Illinois Times. ''They are on their own.''. Information is out there if you know how to get it and if you know what to look for. . Understandably, Scully's operations aroused much opposition, especially in hard times. The architectural drawing, based on Scully's idea, shows a winding staircase that coils up through the clock tower, with two observation decks overlooking downtown Springfield. Previously city included Port Charlotte FL. Jimmy John Liautaud. raising. Founder and CEO Paul Pittman grew up in a farm family in Illinois. His son, Thomas, continued Scully says he is quietly seeking political backing for his idea. William Scully was an Irish aristocrat with land-owning family roots going back 500 years, and both he and his family members were known as heavy-handed landlords in Ireland. Email questions to [emailprotected]. He returned to Ireland to Wild Hare Caf in Elkhart, IL. Farmland Partners largest holdings in central Illinois prime ground is in Edgar County, purchased from race car magnate and businessman Gerald Forsythe in 2015. Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum, Cover illustration courtesy of Robert Johnson. Family holdings in this state are conservatively estimated to be worth at least $80 million. He is 90 years of age, owing to his infirm condition is putting his affairs into shape so that he will be relieved of all business cares. Once known as America's "most extensive landholder," he introduced the Scully land system, which included tenant farming and drain tiling fields. Tied up in trusts, the Illinois ground has passed down to the families of two of his grandsons, Michael and Peter Scully. Michael and his side of the family will have to absorb the loss, as their land is locked up in trusts. Scully's operational principles and practices included one-year-renewable leases, cash rent, tenant ownership of above-the-ground improvements, payment of taxes by the tenant, and, in time, requirements of conservational farming. ''I enjoy farming, but at the same time, I disagree with the whole system we follow on most of our lands with the destructive commercial rules of farming. He treated it as capital, and he put that money back into other income-producing ventures. William Scully is 56 years old and was born on 09/06/1965. 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