USA > Illinois > Ogle County > The history of Ogle County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics history of the Northwest, history of Illinois etc > Part 1
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HISTORY
GLE COUNTY
ILLINOIS 1878
» W. O'Kane:
, W. O'Kane.
A, C, Terry
1926-1971 Everett vel elite 4.27-19.7%
Send Miner, Pf 250
-
1835 FIRST RESIDENCE IN OREGON JAS. V. GALE'S
THE HISTORY
OF
OGLE COUNTY,
ILLINOIS,
CONTAINING
A H ISTORY OF THE COUNTY-ITS CITIES, TOWNS, ETC.
A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF ITS CITIZENS, WAR RECORD OF ITS VOLUNTEERS IN THE LATE REBELLION, GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS,
PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT MEN,
HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST, HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, MAP OF OGLE COUNTY, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO: H. F. KETT & CO., TIMES BUILDING. I 878,
STATE
SOVEREIGNTY
ATIONAL UNION
5
OTTAWAY & COLBERT, PRINTERS, 147 & 149 FIFTH AV., CHICAGO,
PREFACE.
Forty-eight years have come and gone since civilization's advance guards in the per- sons of ISAAC CHAMBERS and JOHN ANKENY, came to occupy and develop the rich agri- cultural lands and exercise dominion in the Sinnissippi* Country, erst the home of the wild, untutored red men, their wives and little ones, and the grazing places of the buffalo, the elk, the deer and other animals native to the climate, herbage and grasses. Had these pioneers or some of the others who immediately followed them, directed their attention to the keeping of a chronological journal or diary of events, to write a history of the country now, would be a comparatively easy task. In the absence of such records, the magnitude of the under- taking is very materially augmented, and rendered still more intricate and difficult by reason of the absence of nearly all the pioneer fathers and mothers who first came to gladden the prairie and forest wilds with their presence, and scatter the seeds of that better intelli - gence which, growing and spreading as year was added to year, until the country of their choice ranks second to none in modern accomplishments. The seeds they scattered ripened into the fullness of a plentiful harvest, and school-houses, churches, colleges, cities, towns, telegraphs, railroads and palatial-like residences occupy the old " camp grounds " of the Winnebagoes, Pottawatomies, and kindred tribes of red men.
The struggles, changes, and vicissitudes that forty-eight years evoke, are as trying to the minds as to the bodies of men. Physical and mental strength waste away together beneath accumulating years, and the memory of names, dates, and events becomes lost in the confusion brought by time and its restless, unceasing changes. Circumstances that were fresh in memory ten and twenty years after their occurrence, are almost, if not entirely, for- gotten, when nearly fifty years have gone. If not entirely obliterated and effaced from memory's tablet, they are so nearly so that, when recalled by one seeking to preserve them, the recollections come slowly back, more like the memory of a midnight dream than of an actual occurrence, in which they were partial, if not active participants and prominent actors. The footprint of time leaves its impressions and destroying agencies upon every thing, and hence it would be unreasonable to suppose that the annals, incidents and hap- penings of nearly half a century, in a community like that whose history we have attempted to write, could be preserved intact and unbroken.
That part of this history of Ogle County relating to the Prairie Pirates is believed to be the only succinct, clear and reliable history ever published of the outrages and outlawry to which Ogle and adjoining counties were subjected for so many years. The facts relating to that reign of terror were obtained from different citizens who took a prominent and active part in the measures inaugurated to free themselves from the presence of the outlaws that defiled and corrupted the country and the courts, and held the people in terror from 1835 to 1845, when the piratical combination was broken up and dispersed. Many of the prom- inent and active members of the so-called Regulators have maintained a continuous resi- dence in the county, where they have steadily grown in wealth, honor and influence; and while they regret the necessity for the organization of themselves as Vigilantes and the kill- ing of the Driscolls, they believed then, as they believe now, that it was the only means of protecting their lives and their homes. We feel assured this chapter will be read with interest.
The passage of several years was marked in the pages of time after the first settle. ments were made at Buffalo Grove before any records of a public nature, relating to what is now Ogle County, were made. From the date of the first settlements by white men at Galena, until the organization of Ogle County in 1836, this territory, now so populous and full of business prosperity, was subject to the jurisdiction of the Fever River Country ; and as matters of historical truth 'many things of which we have written were collected from the early records of Jo Daviess County at Galena. However remote this source of
* Indian for Rocky River.
vi
PREFACE.
information may seem, as connected with the history of Ogle County, those records were invaluable aids to the authors of this book. Without them and the information therein preserved, this history would be very incomplete and imperfect. With this single exception the gentlemen entrusted with the duty of writing this history were forced to depend upon the memory and intelligence of the few surviving pioneer settlers for a very large share of facts and information relating to immediate local events until after the organization of the county by act of the legislature, approved January 16, 1836, the first election for county officers December 24, 1836, and the first session of the County Commissioners' Court January 3, 1837.
For these reasons it is not to be expected this volume will be entirely accurate as to names, dates, etc., or that it will be so perfect as to be above and beyond criticism, for the book is yet to be written and printed that can justly claim the meed of perfection; but it is the publishers' hope, as it is their belief, that it will be found measurably correct and gener- ally accurate and reliable. Industrious and studied care has been exercised to make it a standard book of reference, as well as one of interest, to the general reader. If in such a multiplicity of names, dates, etc., some errors are not detected, it will be strange, indeed.
Such as it is, our offering is completed, and it only remains for us to acknowledge our obligations to the gentlemen named below for the valuable information furnished by them, without which this history of Ogle County would not be so voluminous and com prehensive.
To PHINEAS CHANEY, Hon. JAMES V. GALE, Captain GEORGE P. JACOBS, GEORGE W. PHELPS, ISAAC S. WOOLLEY, HUGH REA, SAMUEL WILSON, Esq., H. P. LASON, editor of the Courier, T. OSCAR JOHNSTON, editor of the Reporter, GEORGE W. HORMELL, County Clerk, and his accomplished and efficient deputy, JOHN MACK, ELBERT K. LIGHT, Clerk of the Circuit Court, and JONATHAN W. JENKINS, of Oregon; Prof. D. J. PINCKNEY, A. QUINBY ALLEN, Esq., Mrs. EMILY HITT, J. W. HITT, Esq., Prof. N. C. DOUGHERTY, SAMUEL KNODLE, FREDERICK B. BRAYTON, Esq., MARTIN T. ROHRER, Esq., and Mrs. ELIZABETH McCOY, of Mount Morris; Capt. NATHANIEL SWINGLEY, THOMAS SMITH, of Creston; SILAS ST. JOHN MIX, PERRY NORTON and G. W. HAWKS, of Byron; GEO. D. READ, J. W. CLINTON, Col. J. D. STEVENSON, JAS. C. LUCKEY, Esq., and Hon. J. D. CAMP- BELL, of Polo; ALFRED S. HOADLEY and E. L. OTIS, of Rochelle; SAMUEL MITCHELL, of- Forreston; CHARLES THROOP, of Grand de Tour; and W. J. KEYES, of Daysville; this paragraph of acknowledgment is therefore respectfully dedicated.
To the ministers and official representatives of the various churches, and to the Superintendent, Principal and Teachers of the schools of the county, we are also under obligations for statistical and historical informatiou. To the parties named above is dnc, in a great measure, whatever of merit may be ascribed to this undertaking.
To the people of the county in general, and the people of Oregon City in particular, our most grateful considerations are due for their universal kindness to our representatives and agents, who were charged with the labor of collecting and arranging the information herein presented to that posterity who will come in the not far distant by-and-by to fill the places of the fathers and mothers, so many of whose names aud honorable biographies are to be found within the pages of this book.
In conclusion, the publishers express the sincere hope that before another forty-eight years will have passed, other and abler minds will have taken up and recorded the historical events that will follow after the close of this offering to the people of Ogle County, that the historical literature of the country may be fully preserved and maintained from county to nation.
April, 1878.
H. F. KETT & CO.,
Publishers.
.
CONTENTS.
HISTORICAL.
PAGE. History Northwest Territory __ 19
Geographical Position ____ 19
Early Explorations. 20
Discovery of the Ohio. 33 English Explorations and Settlements 35
American Settlements. .60 Division of the Northwest Territory .66
Tecumsch and the War of 1812 70
Black Hawk and the Black Hawk War. 74
Other Indian Tronbles 79
Present Condition of the Northwest. 87
Illinois
99
Indiana
101
Iowa
102
Michigan
103
Wisconsin
104
Minnesota
106
History of Illinois
109
Coal .. 125
Compact of 1787
117
History of Illinois.
PAGE.
Chicago
132
Early Discoveries 109
Early Settlements
115
Education
199
French Occupatiou
112
Genins of La Salle 113
Material Resources. 124
Massacre at Ft. Dearborn, 141
Physical Features. 121 Progress of Development.123
Religion and Morals
128
War Record
130
History of Ogle County.
221
Physical Geography.
221
Oregon
486
Rochelle.
50-1
Mt. Morris
533
Polo
551
Forreston
5.8
Byron
.589
Chana
.599
Creston. 603
Davis Junction
60G
Grand de Tour.
607
Daysville
GII
Other Towns.
613
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Mouth of the Mississippi. 21
Source of the Mississippi. 21
Wild Prairie. 23
La Salle Landing on the Shore of Green Bay 25
Buffalo Hunt
Trapping 29
Hunting 32
Iroquois Chief.
3.1
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain. 43 Indians Attacking Frontiers- men 56
A Prairie Storm 59
A Pioneer Dwelling 61
Breaking Prairie _. 63
Tecumseh,the Shawnoe Chief- tain 69
Indians Attacking a Stockade, 72 Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain 75 Big Eagle. 80
Captain Jack, the Modoc Chief-
tain
83
Kinzie House 85
Village Residence 86
A Representative Pioneer. 87
Lincoln Monument, Spring- field, Ill ... 88
A Pioneer School House. 89
Farm View in the Winter 90
Spring Scene. 91
Pioneers' First Winter.
92
Apple Ilarvest ..
Great Iron Bridge of C, R. I. and P. R. R., Crossing the
Mississippl at Davenport, Iowa 96
A Western Dwelling. 100 Huntiog Prairie Wolves in an Early Day .. .108
Starved Rock, on the Illinois
River, La Salle Co., Ill 110
An Early Settlement.
116
Chicago in 1833_
133
Old Fort Dearhorn, 1830
136
Present Site Lake St. Bridge,
Chicago, 1833
13G
Ruins of Chicago ..
142
View of the City of Chicago.
.144
Shabbona
149
First Residence in Oregon
Frontispiece
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
Bacon, B. W
397
Hoadley A. S ..
511
Rice, Isaac.
.709
Johnston, T. O.
.619
Ray, J. T ..
469
Lason. H. P.
493
Shumway, R. G. .267
Clinton, J. W .673
Mix, W. J., Sr
147
Sharer, Jno .. 547
Chaney, P. .219
Campbell, J. D. .327
Mix, 11. A. (deceased) .277
Slocum, C. E. 583
Mix, H. A., M. D. 287
Stiles, D. B. 307
Mix, S. St John
Stocking, Wm 317
Flagg, W. P. 165
Fuller, W. W. .257
Gale, J. V. 367
Hotaling. J. R. 417
Hathaway, M. D. 529
Roc, Jno. Dr. 637
Wamsly, Wm 297
OGLE COUNTY WAR RECORD.
PAGE.
Infantry.
PAGE.
Cavalry.
PAGE.
Infantry
393
75th
406
7th
419
15th
393
92d
406
8th
420
34th
396
140th
.413
12th
420
39th
400
142d 414
13th
420
46th
401
55th
403
Cavalry
416
15th 421
69th
404
416
17th 421
74th
404
4th
419
History of Ogle Co.
Press
.447
Mound Builders
1
.455
Fossils and Petrifactions_458
County Officers
460
Vote
462
Property Statement. .404
Educational 465
Rock River Seminary
468
Old Settlers.
479
Swamp Lands
482
River Improvement.
493
County Poor
484
History of Towns:
Introductory_
236
Winnebago War
.270
Black Hawk War 275
Local History.
291
Township Organization .325
Circuit Records.
344
Prairie Pirates
350
Nebraska
107
Bridge
380
War History
384
Railroads
423
Northern Boundary
443
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Babcock, A. S.
.337
Burns, W. W.
.565
Mix, W. J., Jr. 247
Schryver, M. E. 691
.655 407
Phelps, G. W. 387 Sheets, B. F
Petrie, F. J. .377
Smith, P .. 237
Potter, E. S. 427
Wagner, R. 183
Reed, Ed. E. 347
Williams, C. K. 201
Artillery
421
Miscellaneous Infantry. .415
14th .420
Dutcher, E. F. 357
Davis, Jeremiah .601
PAGE.
PAGE.
viii
CONTENTS.
BIOGRAPHICAL TOWNSHIP DIRECTORY.
PAGE.
PAOE.
PAGE.
Oregon
617
Mt. Morria 768
Monroe 798
Flagg.
.651
Вугоп.
840
Marion
823
Buffalo. 675
Maryland 711
Forreaton
721
Dement
729
Leaf River .740
Rockvale 753
Lynnville 793
White Rock. 6422
ABSTRACT OF ILLINOIS STATE LAWS.
PAOE.
Adoption of Children 160
Bills of Exchange and Prom- iesory Notes_
151
County Courts 155
Conveyances 164
Church Organization 189
Deacent 151
Deeds and Mortgages_ 157
Drainage 163
Damages from Trespasa. 169
Definition of Com'rcial Terms173
Exemptions from Forced Sale,156 Estrays 157
Fences
168
Forms :
Articles of Agreement. 175
Bills of Purchase. 174
Billa of Sale. 176
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Map of Ogle Co. _Front.
Constitution of United States 199
How to keep accounta. .211
Interest Table .212
Miscellaneons Table 212
Namea of the States of the
Population of the Principal Countries in the World ____ 215
Union and their Significa-
U. S. Government Land Meas- tions ... 213 ure 210
Population of the U. S ..
214
Population Illinois .... 216 & 217 Agricultural Productions of
Illinois by Counties 1870 ___ 218
PAOE.
Bonds .176
Game 158
Interest 151
Jurisdiction of Courts 154
Limitation of Action 155
Landlord and Tenant 169
Liene 172
Notea. 174
Married Women. 155
Notice Tenant to Quit 181
Millers. 159
Orders
174
Marks and Brands. 159
Paupers
164
Roads and Bridges 161
Surveyora and Surveys 160
Suggestion toPersona purchas-
ing Books by Subscription .190 Taxes 154
Tenant's Agreement. 180
Tenant'a Notice to Quit __ 181
Wills and Estates 152
Warranty Deed. .182
Weights and Measures
158
Wolf Scalps
164
PAGE.
Surveyors Measure 211
Population of Fifty Principal
Cities of the U. S. .214 Population and Area of the United States. .215
Electors of President and Vice-President, 1876. 206
Practical Rules for every day nse .207
Chattel Mortgagea 177
Codicil 189
Lease of Farm and B'Id'gs,179
Lease of House 180
Landlord's Agreement .180
Quit Claim Deed. 185
Receipt .. 174
Real Estate Mortgage to secure paym't of Money,181 Release ... 186
Will .187
Naehna .. 639
Brookville 789
Eagle Point 812
Pine Rock 852
Pine Creek 818
Grand de Tonr 808
Lincoln 845
Scott 832
Taylor 807
Lafayette 784
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.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River ; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the "New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
(19)
20
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims " moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots ( Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
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MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette was delighted to find a beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the Winter in giving them an abundant " chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of
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