In an incident that is part of Irish history, Scully was ambushed and shot five times by a group of enraged tenants near Ballycohey in 1868. 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. The land was drained, the railroad came in and William Scully made his fortune. Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print! He eventually owned a total of 211,000 acres in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, including 30,000 acres in Logan County, Ill. alone. Now more than ever, were asking for your support to continue providing our community with real news that everyone can access, free of charge. Friends like to say that Scully was New Age before there was New Age. His son, Thomas, continued Bill Gates. "No eccentric ever thinks he's eccentric," Scully says with a wink. Bill Gates. The Illinois land is farmed by 118 tenants; once, more than 1,000 tenants farmed Scully lands. Ribeiro began investing in farmland in central Illinois in the early 1980s, following his success as a businessman and entrepreneur in Brazil. ''I`m a Gemini, with two faces,'' Michael said. With the rehabilitation of Union Station set to begin as soon as next month, it's unlikely that Scully's idea for the clock tower will ever be realized, says a spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which has authority over the project. However, the land was not conducive to raising sheep, especially with the preponderance of hungry wolves. By Land Values: Heres a look at the top 10 absentee landowners in central Illinois, and where they own farmland. in Logan, Sangamon and Tazewell. ''There are too many interesting projects out there to do that. The opinions of this writer are not necessarily those of Farm Progress/Informa. He learned this after investigating Gates purchase of the 100 Circles farm in eastern Washington by one of Gates holding companies. 3735 W Links Dr, Phoenix, AZ, 85086-2758. 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. 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. Like most farmers nearing retirement, Scully, 64, had hoped his children might take an active interest in his land: Cockleburr Farm and the other holdings passed on to him by his father and grandfather. About | raising. His only daughter is a wire service photographer living quite happily in Hawaii, thank you. "We try to embark on only one crusade at a time here," Smith laughs. It was a hugely profitable policy and contributed to his enormous personal wealth at the time of his death (at least $10 million). This was an interesting exercise for me. Some were even shot and killed by Irish tenants. And while it may feel like investors are coming in and buying up a lot of land, the reality is that the holdings of these top 10 only represent 0.02% of total farmland for all the counties surveyed. estates of Logan County, Illinois, writes that Scully Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum, Cover illustration courtesy of Robert Johnson. ''Nasty Nasty! So, I decided to look here first. The venture died as quickly as it began, at a loss of some $5 million. 9. A 1991 article claims that the church already owned over 38,000 acres of farmland in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri at that time. 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. in Illinois and other parts of the mid-west. 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. The prime soils of central Illinois have the highest concentration of absentee landowners as measured by the per-capita number of professional farm managers. WILLIAM SCULLY'S METHODS; How the Notorious Land Monopolist Treats His Tenants. Wild Hare Caf in Elkhart, IL. Heres a look at the top 10 absentee landowners in central Illinois, and where they own farmland. He concentrated rigorously on maximising profits, often at the expense of his tenants, which inevitably caused conflict. Family holdings in this state are conservatively estimated to be worth at least $80 million. According to my research, the church is the largest absentee owner of prime central Illinois farm ground. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Sens. 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. Professional farm managers have unique insight into the world of farmland investing, and they bring a unique perspective. 10. The Scullys were a prosperous catholic family of middlemen and lawyers in Co. Tipperary, and Denys Scully was an active figure in catholic political life. (18211906), landowner, was born 23 November 1821 in Kilfeacle, Co. Tipperary, the youngest son of Denys Scully (qv), lawyer, and his second wife, Katherine (ne Eyre; d. 1843). The land was drained, the railroad came in and William Scully made his fortune. But when you get right down to it, he is a dirt farmer with a dirt farmer`s problems. Scully Estates of Logan County, Illinois. Beavers early research ''We as a family have been fortunate that my grandfather came over and put together this estate, and that we have the privilege of earning money from it,'' he said. Indeed, he often acted as his own bailiff and became involved in a number of violent incidents with tenants while attempting to evict them. Heres a look at the top 10 absentee landowners in central Illinois, and where they own farmland. His current pet project is the development of worm humus as a commodity that can be mass marketed as an organic crop fertilizer. Violet died on August 9, 1976. Jimmy John Liautaud. Subscribers may view the full text of this article in its original form through TimesMachine. -- "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. Some of his siblings had less controversial careers, following their father into the legal profession and politics: his brother Vincent Scully (qv) was liberal MP for Co. Cork (18527, 185965). Email addresses. Historical Society dinner/lecture of 2011 was on November 4 at The He bought large tracts of swampy ground in Logan Countysome for as little as 50 cents per acre. first to use a drainage system in Logan County, and Scully tenant farmers William Scully and his agents chose well. They should get into life. In a close second is the Scully Family ground, largely based in Logan County. His grandfather William was an infamous Irish landowner vilified in both Ireland and America for his harsh treatment of tenants. Scully began to drain Scully said. 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. The final Elkhart He attends seances, collects crystals and follows the teachings of Austrian social philosopher Rudolf Steiner, whose study of man`s cosmic inner spirit is known as anthrosoposophy. . Mobile number (602) 721-3768 . Coming in at a distant third with less than half the acreage of either of the top two landowners is Farmland Partners. By 1888, he had nearly 30,000 in Logan, 600 in Tazewell, 8400 in At the time of the events at Ballycohey, Scully's Irish landholdings were already overshadowed by his American properties. The family's involvement in Union Station began in 1984, more than a decade after the station had ceased operations as a train depot. presentation. > were able to get into their fields two weeks earlier than the other 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. Ed Russo, the retired city historian, says that that's a shame: "A peaceful meditation space seems appropriate for the presidential library. For absentee ownership in the counties surveyed, Bill Gates comes in fourth with just shy of 12,000 acres. Some fifteen hundred tenants farmed these extensive holdings. "LORD" SCULLY AS LANDLORD; Aged Owner of Over 200,000 Acres Dropping Business Cares. intentions of raising sheep like his family and his fellow Irish The land was drained, the railroad came in and William Scully made his fortune. Wild Hare Caf in Elkhart, IL. On the former pasture he built an 18-hole public golf course named Wolf Creek after the navigable waterway that is now polluted only by errant golf balls. When the state ordered him to remove the cattle or build the equivalent of a municipal water-treatment plant, Peter responded imaginatively. several other books, one being his 2010, Abraham Lincoln in Logan County, Illinois 1834-1860. The opinions of this writer are not necessarily those of Farm Progress/Informa. Ceres Partners is an asset investment manager focused solely on food and agriculture with large holdings in Indiana and Michigan. Subscribe to receive top agriculture news, Be informed daily with these free e-newsletters. His empire, at one time the largest in the United States, remains in land trusts controlled by his descendants. Anyone can read what you share. 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. 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. Great Plains Quarterly Vol. He was charged with bashing a tenant`s wife over the head with his walking stick on one occasion, and with shooting two members of a tenant family on another. his Illinois prairie land around 1870, using big open ditches ''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. Paul has authored 1877, Review of Landlord William Scully By Homer E. Socolofsky, Leslie Hewes, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 3. Scully says he considers Union Station a significant footnote in his own rich family history. ''They don`t sell anything if they can help it,'' one family associate said. were able to get into their fields two weeks earlier than the other 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. Scully recently commissioned former city historian Ed Russo to chronicle his family's involvement with Union Station. Scully himself was injured in the affray. Society dinner/lecture this summer. Ceres Partners is an asset investment manager focused solely on food and agriculture with large holdings in Indiana and Michigan. Twenty years ago, Scully retired from the farm and moved, with his wife, Jean, into a century-old mansion on Wiggins Avenue, near Washington Park. the vast drainage system, enlarging and maintaining by adding grass A. claims that the church already owned over 38,000 acres of farmland in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri at that time. Rather than farm this land himself, Mr. Scully chose to lease the land in a fashion similar to the one his family had used in Ireland for many years. New Age before New Age came of age, Michael told author Sophy Burnham, whose 1968 book, ''The Landed Gentry,'' examines the private propertied class in America, that he intended to breed horns back on his cattle because. We are an organization of professional men and women engaged in the management of farms and the appraisal of rural property. He's also well versed in the legends surrounding the Holy Grail, the mythical object associated, depending on the legend, with the Last Supper or Christ's crucifixion. LINCOLN, ILL. Michael Scully is soap-opera handsome and Harvard educated. He was the 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. Ceres Partners. Scully, who previously served as a Managing Director at Cerberus Capital Management and was a Partner at Apollo Real Estate Advisors is now charged with helping the Hong Kong-based real estate investment house establish a US presence and will lead the sourcing and executions of investments in North America for Asia Pacific Land. William C Scully, William S Soully, Williams S Scully, William S Scully and William Charles Scully are some of the alias or nicknames that William has used. The ground is managed by Rob Woodrow of Farmland Solutions and Craig Thompson of First Mid Ag Services. Scully began to drain Wild Hare Caf in Elkhart, IL. . He collects crystals, believes in karma and reincarnation, and is a devout follower of esoteric spiritualist Rudolph Steiner. So who are these absentee landowners? farmers as a result. Each trust is so tightly protected that it cannot be opened even for charitable purposes. Gov. Members of the society manage the production and marketing of nearly 10 percent of the corn and soybeans produced in Illinois. 4 (1920), 220-21. Historical Society dinner/lecture of 2011 was on November 4 at The 9. He treated it as capital, and he put that money back into other income-producing ventures. He continued to buy land in Kansas until 1885. several other books, one being his 2010 The Scully Family. 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.". 2. Abandoned for several years, the crumbling building had been threatened with demolition when Young Michael and Nanchen stepped in to buy it. As the USA spread further west Scully made additional acquisitions, particularly in Kansas and Nebraska. He has a relaxed, gentle demeanor and speaks in a hushed English accent. Apr 2001 - Sep 20032 years 6 months. He inherited some land in Ireland, but he was not the first son, so he set out at age 29 to make his fortune by acquiring what was regarded as untillable swampland in the Midwest. Paul's latest endeavor, The Last Farm Boy Scully spent about $10,000 to produce the monograph, which will be exhibited later this year at the Lincoln Public Library, 30 miles north of Springfield. 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. For 30 years, Michael Scully ran an organic-beef farm on 400 acres in Buffalo, 15 miles northeast of Springfield, on land that was part of his massive inheritance. At that time, more than 7,000 acres of the Scully land . Scully married twice; firstly Margaret Sweetman (d. 1861) in 1851, with whom he had three daughters, and secondly Enriqueta Angela Chynoweth (d. 1932) in 1876, with whom he had three sons and one daughter. Long warm days and cool summer nights with plenty of water from the river have helped it to rank among the most productive regions in the U.S., if not the world. 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. (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. Produced in Illinois manager focused solely on food and agriculture with large holdings in Indiana and Michigan demeanor and in! 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