Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County, Part 136

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 950

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Great changes have occurred in the thirty or more years since these men were in the prime 683-5

of their powers, and a much more numerous and, under changed conditions, equally able bar has taken their places. Then books and precedents were comparatively few and specia. lines of practice almost unknown. A good lawyer had to meet all the requirements of the office, the court and the jury, whether along chancery, civil or criminal lines of practice. No printed forms of bills, declarations or in- dictments, nor of cross bills, answers, pleas, demurrers or motions of any kind were fur- nished him by the Clerk of the Court or at the stationer's counter. He had to prepare all court papers himself. His annotations and cross-references to authorities, examined in preparing briefs, were penciled by himself upon the margin of the pages of the few available books in his scant library. Studiously read and thoroughly grounded in the principles of law, the pioneer lawyer was forced by the envir- onment to depend very largely upon his own personal effort and strength to impress his individual deductions and views upon both Judge and jury. Hence, there was wider scope for the personal effort of the ambitious practi- tioner, probably, than now. They were erect- ing the frame-work of the spacious Temple of Justice, in whose separate apartments the prac- titioner of today, with more numerous helps, finer polish'and, perhaps, equal or greater skill, performs his special function. The bench of Kane County has always respected and admired its able Bar; and the pride of the Bar has ever been a wise and discreet and impartial judi- ciary. Both Bench and Bar are worthy of the best estate of their predecessors and rank well with those of any other county of the State.

MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS .- The pioneer doctors led especially strenuous lives. Their pa- tients were very widely separated, and pinching- ly poor. But generally the doctors were robust young men, full of courage and resources. and they did not greatly mind the storms, sloughs, fords and long night-rides. Except the very few old settlers left, and the veterans of the great War, there are not many persons now in Kane County who can at all realize the utter darkness of a stormy night in an unsettled country. Probably not one person in a hundred ever experienced the sensation of being in ab- solute solitude except for the presence of his faithful horse, in the complete blackness of a stormy night, where not one ray of light pierced the gloom, amid the loneliness and silence of

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

an uninhabited locality. How many of our excellent young physicians of today would be willing, on such a night and in such environ- ments-or even if there were kindly stars in the sky-to mount his horse and set forth to find his patient twelve or fifteen miles in the country, where streams were unbridged and so- called roads but a few wagon-tracks, branching off here and there to some settler's lonely cabin with but one little window-perhaps on the side away from the traveler, all as dark and obscure as the grove that shadowed it-his only com- panions a group of sneaking wolves that stealthily trailed his pathway? Dr. Joseph Tefft used to laugh heartily over one ex- experience of this sort, when a little nervous over the number and close familiarity of a band of wolves that had followed him out, he picked up a convenient club at the corner of the cabin as he came away, and which having thrown down beside his stable-door as he alighted after reaching home, he found next day was the good woman's roughly fashioned rolling-pin.

But the patients of that day, as well as doc- tors, were usually persons in the prime of life, and the prevalent ailment was different forms of malarial fever-mighty vexatious but seldom dangerous or fatal-and the remedies to be administered from the doctor's ever-present saddle-bags were few and simple, even if pow- erful. One early settler being asked by a new- comer how he liked the country, replied that he "liked the few people first rate, and the big country was mighty fine; but after shaking down two or three shanties with the ague, he could not say he loved the climate."

It is very doubtful if there was a drug-store in the county as early as 1840; so each physi- cian was compelled to procure a supply of me- dicinal drugs in their primary form, and from these to compound his own prescriptions and roll his own pills-not usually by careful weights and exact measurements, as now, but largely by guess as to quantities used. The fre- quent-perhaps common-measurement of

a dose was "as much as would lay upon the blade of a pocket knife." Some knives were larger than others. The remedies used consisted largely of calomel, "blue mass" and other mer- curial preparations; opium in its various forms and combinations; quinine and Peruvian bark; rhubarb, ipecac, jalap, tartar-emetic and Dover's powders.

In the villages there were no side-walks or

street lamps; and the doctor waded through the black mud at night, carrying a tin-lan- tern that emitted thin streaks of the feeble light of a tallow home-made candle through lit- tle slit-like crevices punched in the tin for that purpose. · The doctor was also sometimes called upon to act as both lawyer and minister. There were few facilities for caring for the sick and very little diversity of food for their nourish- ment. He grappled courageously with the high duties of his profession amid discouraging sur- roundings that would appal the practitioner of today. He treated all the ailments of the body and of each of its members. There were no specialists as yet. He was both surgeon and physician; and, without anaesthetics, he per- formed surgical operations with instruments most crude and rudimentary. The financial rec- ompense for his services was very small, long delayed, and paid largely in products of the farm or shop, or in an order on the store. But he was entertained with the best his patients could command, was welcomed at every home, and blessed with a veneration and love that deepened with the passing years, and that is ever priceless. He lived as well, and accumu- lated as rapidly, as any of his neighbors; and his labors had rich compensation of respect and good will.

Allopathy was substantially the only "pathy" known in the pioneer days. In 1835 there was no Kane County, but in that year Dr. N. H. Palmer came into what is now Sugar Grove. Dr. Daniel Eastman-who was also a preacher, a lawyer and a Judge, and eminent in each office-settled in Aurora, and Dr. Joseph Tefft and Nathan Collins located in Elgin Township. It is quite impossible to state with definiteness which came first, but probably it was Dr. Palm- er. It has been quite generally agreed, how- ever, that Dr. Tefft made the first professional call, and prescribed for a young lady who be- came the loved and honored wife of Nathaniel Ladd, a highly respected citizen whose fine farm lay in the four townships of St. Charles, Campton, Plato and Elgin, where the family long resided and which remained the home of the father and mother during their lives. Dr. Collins removed to St. Charles in 1836, and was probably the first physician in that place, al- though Dr. Thomas P. Whipple purchased a claim in that township and began practice there the same year.

One of the best and most noted physicians

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

of the county was Dr. Henry M. Crawford, who graduated from the Royal Belfast College in 1848, came immediately to America, and in the same year began his life-work at St. Charles. During the terrible scourge of Asiatic cholera, which prevailed in 1848 and 1854, his tender and daring devotion to the afflicted awakened the warmest gratitude and admiration, and his professional skill equalled his devotion and energy. He at once acquired a wide popularity and practice that grew with the passing years. In 1861 he became Surgeon of the Fifty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was rapidly promoted to Brigade, Division, and Army Corps Surgeon, and to Chief of Hospitals. He died at his home in St. Charles on June 26, 1900, and his remains rest in the beautiful "Bluff City Cemetery" at Elgin. An artistic and durable marble monument, surmounted by a beautiful figure, representing most fittingly the Angel of Mercy, marks the grave of this knightly man.

In 1843 Dr. G. W. Richards opened a medical school at St. Charles, chartered as the Franklin Medical College. The only riot attended with fatal results that ever occurred in the county,

was precipitated by the action of students of this school, taking place on the 19th day of April, 1849. John Rood, one of the medical students, and George W. Richards, a son of Dr. Richards, exhumed from her grave at Syca- more, for dissecting purposes, the body of Mrs. George M. Kenyon, a well-known young woman very recently married, and the daughter of Da- vid Churchill. The grave desecrators observed but little secrecy, and the outrage was quickly discovered. Plain traces indicated the purpose of the desecration and a party of one hundred or more indignant citizens started from Syca- more to recover the body and avenge the crime. Many St. Charles people were in full sympathy with them, and doubtless joined them; as it was said that fully two hundred excited men approached the Doctor's house and demanded the body which had been hurriedly taken from his barn and secreted in the woods halt-way to Geneva. The Doctor boldy confronted them and, denying all knowledge of the transaction, resisted their attempts to search the premises. In the struggle that ensued shots were ex- changed, and Rood, probably the most guilty person, was mortally wounded, The Doctor al- so received a wound which paralyzed one arm, and doubtless hastened his death. The mob withdrew, and the body was soon after restored

to its friends untouched by the knife. The college was abandoned, and the Doctor removed to Dubuque, Iowa, where he died just four years later. The people of the whole county were intensely excited, not alone by the ghoul- ish nature of the affair, but. also by the bold and brutal insolence of its perpetrators. While the belief was general that the Doctor had no previous knowledge of the intended crime, nearly all justified the measure of prompt retri- bution.

It is said that Dr. Charles Volney Dyer be- came a resident of Geneva in the early 'thirties and suggested the present name of that city; but he soon removed to Chicago, where he be- came very prominent in political, business and benevolent enterprises. He was the Free-Soil candidate for Governor in 1848. Many old citi- zens remember him as a man of fine humor and full of waggish jest. At a meeting of the projectors of one of Chicago's north shore sub- urbs, in which he was interested, various names for the place were proposed, embodying the name of an interested party; and the Doctor gravely remarked that he, too, cherished a laudable desire to send his name "thundering down through the corridors of time," which possibly might be accomplished by calling the town Dyerthea.

The first permanently resident physician of Geneva, however, was Dr. Henry A. Miller, a brother-in-law of Judge Isaac G. Wilson. In 1839 Dr. D. K. Town began medical practice at Batavia, and he at once became one of the most useful and influential men of the town and county, He was one of the founders of the Batavia Institute, which has greatly contrib- uted to the prominence and character of the city and vicinity. Dr. John R. Goodnow was the first physician to locate at Dundee, coming in 1837. It is stated that one Dr. Smith opened the first medical office at Blackberry in 1856. Hampshire's first physician was Dr. Thomas E. Fowler, who came in 1850. Dr. Stephen R. Hys- lop located at Kaneville as early as 1848, and in Virgil Township it is believed that Dr. Strong began practice in 1856, Dr. J. T. H. Brady and Dr. S. O. Long, were medical practitioners in Big Rock Township for many years, commenc- ing about 1840. Dr. Latimer S. Tyler was the pioneer physician of Plato, where he began practice in 1836. Dr. I. W. Garvin was the first physician to locate in Burlington, and Dr. John King in Campton, where he built the

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

"King's Mill" (a saw-mill). Dr. Tyler, at Udina, and Dr. Daniel Pingree, at Pingree's Grove, were so near Rutland that they, with the physicians of Elgin and Hampshire, attend- ed the calls from that township, although it is said that one Dr. Mckay settled and practiced there at an early day. He was probably the · postmaster at Banner in 1848.

These men and their professional co-workers and successors have ever been active leaders in the developing enterprises of their respective localities, and their guiding minds and con- structing influence is recorded upon all the pages of the progressive history of each town- ship and city, as well as upon the records of the county. Dr. Anson L. Clark was, for many years, a member and Secretary of the State Board of Health. He is now and, for more than a score of years, has been the useful and hon- ored President of Bennett Medical College.

CHAPTER XVI.

MILITARY HISTORY.

THIE RECORD OF KANE COUNTY IN VARIOUS WARS- PATRIOTIC RESPONSE AFTER THE FIRING ON FORT SUMTER-LIST OF MILITARY ORGANIZA- TIONS AND COMMISSIONED OFFICERS-NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS-PART OF THE COUNTY IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR-SOLDIERS' MONU- MENTS.

A fine military and loyal spirit has been mani- fested by the people of Kane County upon all proper occasion ?. Many of' its first settlers were sons of Revolutionary sirex, who vividly recalled the stories told by their parents of the toils and perils of that long heroic struggle; and, under such inspiring impulses, the great anniversary of the Declaration of Indepen- dence has, from the very first settlement of the county, been ushered in as prophesied, "by the ringing of bells, the firing of guns and the glad shouts of a grateful people." Since the estab- lishment of "Memorial Day," its tender and patriotic ceremonies have everywhere been ob- served along the broadest and most impressive

lines. So complete cessation from the ordinary labors and business of life-so general abstin- ence from games and amusements-such am- ple and generous provisions for speakers, music, stands, seats and decoration-such wealth of wreaths and garlands of flowers-so general attendance of veterans and children, and such ,vast concourses of intelligent, appreciative peo- ple to join in all its sacred and beautiful serv- ices as characterize the annual celebration of this day, attest and demonstrate the patriotic devotion of the people of Kane County.

On the Sunday preceding Memorial Day, very many clergymen select for their discourses themes bearing upon the higher civic duties of life, and inciting love of liberty and devotion to country. In many schools prizes are offered for the best essays treating of the lives and characters of great Americans; and these are read, and the prizes publicly awarded, as an interesting part of an afternoon program of patriotic school exercises. The school children proudly take a prominent part in honoring the surviving veterans, and in decorating the graves of the sleeping heroes. Flag Day is most fit- tingly observed by the schools generally. So the men and women of tomorrow are being taught the cost and value of liberty and native land, the horrors of war and the blessings of peace, and the high duty of living-and, if need be, of dying-for humanity and our country.

There were men, too, among the early set- tlers, who had served in the War of 1812. The pioneers watched with keen interest the heroic struggle of the Texans in their effort to be free from the tyrannical despotism of Mexico, All were thrilled with intense indignation at the barbarous butchery of Travis, Crockett, Bowie and all their comrades at San Antonio, and the shocking massacre at Goliad. And when, a few years later, our own disturbed relations with Mexico deepened to war, they did indeed "remember the Alamo," and with alacrity re- sponded to the call of Governor French for vol- unteers, although the war was by no means wholly justified in the minds of the people. The ten-year-old frontier county of kane or- ganized a company of over ninety-five men, of- ficered by Edward E, Harvey as Captain, and Lewis A. Norton, Hugh Fullerton and William G. Conklin as Lieutenants. It rendezvoused at St. Charles, and was mustered into the United States service at Alton, August 3, 1847, as Com- pany I, Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteer In-

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

fantry. Its principal service was in guard duty at Tampico on the coast where the unaccus- tomed "climate, filthy, unsanitary conditions, and the inexperience of new recruits, wrought their usual fatal results in the death by dis- ease of Captain Harvey and thirty-four of the enlisted men. Moses' History of Illinois states that, upon the death of

Captain Harvey, in March, 1848. Sewell W. Smith, whose name appears upon the com- pany rolls as a private, was promoted to the captaincy. The regiment was mustered out at Alton in July, 1848. Lieutenant Conklin was again mustered into the military service of the United States, as Battalion Major of the famous Eighth Illinois Cavalry, on September 18, 1861.

No words can adequately portray the varied and startled emotions of the people when the lurid war-cloud of the great Rebellion rolled darkly up the southern sky, and burst forth in the thunders and lightnings of war above and around Fort Sumter. During the long debate over the question of African slavery, which was first focussed in the Compromise Measure of 1820, there had been great diversity of politi- cal sentiment in Kane County, and many who loved the Union more than they hated the Southern system of African slavery, had done their utmost to allay the dangerous contention. But when treason culminated in open rebellion and assailed the sovereignty of the Nation, all differences were upon the instant fused in the hot fire of indignant loyalty. There was no hesitation. With one voice, all declared "the Federal Union-it must and shall be preserved." On Monday, April 15, 1861, Illinois' beloved President telegraphed Illinois' great War Gov- ernor, a call for six regiments of volunteer in- fantry for immediate three-months' military service. Kane County's response was two full companies on their way to Springfield within one brief week. Sixty companies were called from the one hundred and two counties of the State, and this new county-the ninth in pop- ulation-instantly furnished two of the sixty. The State Adjutant General's official report shows Captain Nicholas Greusel's Aurora com- pany as enrolled at Springfield on April 18th (Thursday), and Captain Edward S. Joslyn's company as enrolled-the officers at Springfield and the enlisted men at Elgin-'on April 22d ( Monday.) The facts were, that the officers and enlisted men of both companies were actu- ally, but informally, enrolled on each day of

the intervening week as they consented to en- list, and at their home cities. The formal en- rollment recorded by the Adjutant-General was undoubtedly written out, at Springfield, with no regard for exact date or place of individual enlistment. Very few of the original enroll- ment papers have been preserved, and herein lies the utter impossibility of determining who first enlisted either in the county or in the State. To show the method usually adopted- although these agreements were of as many varying forms as the number of persons who individually prepared them-one which has been preserved is here given:

"We hereby enroll our names as members of a military company at Elgin, Kane County, Illi- nois. Whenever the number necessary for a full company shall have been enrolled, officers shall be elected and a name and by-laws adopt- ed, by a majority vote of the members; and by a like vote the company shall immediately de- termine what regiment or branch of the serv- ice they will enter, and forthwith tender them- selves to the proper authorities for the war. And, for the prompt performance of the duties of any station assigned us in said company, we solemnly pledge to each other our sacred word of honor."

This paper was in circulation more than a month before the number of young men req- uisite for a full company had signed it. No date was given each signature, and precedence was only shown by the order of the signatures.

Captain Joslyn's company had been under militia organization three or four years as the "Washington Continental Artillery," and had been drilled two seasons by that enthusias- tic Colonel, Elmer E. Ellsworth, who was trag- ically killed at Alexandria, Virginia, early in the war. Its members began enlisting immedi- ately upon knowledge of the President's call. Sergeant (afterward Captain) George F. Wheel- er went before the Elgin City Clerk and took oath of enlistment on the morning of April 16th, and has always strenuously insisted that he was the first man to enlist in the State of Illinois. Who can deny his patriotic claim?

The "hot" boys were hastily enlisting. The cooler ones were at once making preparation to do so a little later. The officers were writ- ing and telegraphing for instructions and sup- plies, and all were in a turmoil of the wildest excitement. Little thought was given to the

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preservation of exact statistical data. The "Continentals" had been attired in the showy uniform of Revolutionary times, which now must be changed to the inconspicuous gray of the United States army. We should not forget that the Confederates "appropriated" the color of our army uniform, as well as its arms, and many of its West Point officers, but none of its enlisted men. We were thus compelled to change our uniform to "the blue." As rapidly as its members or new recruits enlisted for the war they were measured by the local tailors. William G. Hubbard, George W. Renwick and John S. Wilcox borrowed money upon their note at O. Davidson's "Home Bank," and Joseph Hemmens hurried with it to Chicago and pur- chased the required gray cloth. Immediately upon its arrival every tailor began cutting from the measurements that had been taken, and every seamstress began sewing upon the new uniforms. Many an anxious mother, wife, sister and loving friend wrought far into the night, with prayers and tears amid the stitches. At the morning services on Sunday, April 21st. the pastors announced the abandonment of the usual afternoon meetings, and asked the women to repair at once to places where the unfinished garments had been collected, and assist in com- pleting them. On Monday, the 22d, the com- pany of noble young men, fully clad in their new gray uniforms, were on their way to Springfield. It will be well for the young men of future years to make careful note of the sig- nificant fact, that very nearly every member of that old militia company was honored with a commissioned officer's rank before the close of the great war upon which they were now en- tering. On Thursday, the 25th, both companies were mustered into the first regiment organized under the call-the Seventh Illinois Infantry Volunteers-the old "Continentals" as Com- pany "A," and the Aurora boys as Company "C." And so Kane County's two companies appear "on the right of the line"-Company "A" on the extreme right of Illinois' magnifi- cent parade of 149 regiments of infantry, sev- teen regiments of cavalry, and two regiments of Field Artillery, besides the many unattached organizations, and the great number of patri- otic men and women of the State in voluntary hospital, sanitary, and other service, incident to the prosecution of this most stupendous war of ancient or modern times. Of this splendid array Kane County organized within her bor-

ders, in separate and not permanent govern- ment camps, three regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, three unattached com- panies of cavalry, and one battery of light artil- lery. If another county in the proud State of Lincoln, Grant, Logan, Yates and Oglesby can equal this distinguished record, fair and pa- tient search has failed to disclose it.

The commissioned officers from Kane County in these two companies were: Captain Nich- olas Greusel, promoted to Major; Captains Ed- ward S. Joslyn and Samuel E. Lawyer; Lieu- tenants Reuben H. Adams, James Davidson, Samuel E. Lawyer, Silas Miller and Rufus Pat- tison. Before their short term of service ex- pired, the members of these two companies were being placed in proper positions in more permanent organizations. The Seventh Regi- ment retained its autonomy in the three years' service with Nicholas Greusel promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel; William Brown, Jr., to Quartermaster; Samuel G. Ward, George F. Wheeler, Thomas McGuire and Samuel E. Law- yer as Captains; and Jonathan Kimball, Mason M. Marsh, Charles T. Elliott and John H. Hub- bard as Lieutenants.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County, Part 136

Author: Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 950

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 950