Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County, Part 142

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

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RUTLAND TOWNSHIP.

Rutland, embracing 'Town 42, Range 7, is of course, the central one of the north tier of town- ships of the county. It is very difficult to ob- tain authentic information regarding the detail of the original government surveys of the lands in Kane County; but it appears quite certain, that the south line of the north tier of town- ships was not established, technically, as a cor- rectional line to bring the variant lines back to their true positions and courses, but rather that, while surveys were in progress northward from the foundation Base Line, nearly 250

miles south of here, a new sub-base line was carefully laid from the meridian line eastward; and from this as a base, township lines were surveyed to the north. It is certain that the land in these three townships, as well as in Mc- Henry County, was surveyed before the bal- ance of Kane County. The sections in these townships, thus being laid off at the opening of new surveys, should be even without frac- tions; while we know that, as the surveys from the far south reached this new line, they had so converged toward the meridian line as to be over a mile out of their true course to the north, causing the "jog" eastward. and the range lines had taken so wide a northward trend that they left heavy fractions in the last tier of sections south of this sub-base line.

The surface of this township was far more broken into knolls and short ranges of hills- some of them quite high, and with deep sloughs and water-holes between-than any other por- tion of the county, which greatly retarded its early occupation. Nearly all the dry land was covered with oak openings, but there was no real timber land in the township. A few choice spots were taken at an early day; yet there was land subject to entry in this township more than ten years after the early date at which it was placed on public sale. Its lands came into market with those of Hampshire, September 2, 1839. The meandering brooks that drain it can scarcely be traced to any distinctive head; but the branches of those which flow to the Kishwaukee in a northwesterly course, can be followed, respectively, to what was a large pond on the southeast quarter of Section 30, near Sunset Station, and the other to what were sloughs near the center of Section 21, while there was another brook flowing in the same direction from near the center of Section 11. The one arm of Tyler Creek reached to the sloughs in the neighborhood of Pingree Grove, and the other to those about Gilbert Station. There was quite a pretty prairie lake near the center of the line between Sections 1 and 2, and another, called Lake Killarney, amid the hills on the east half of Section 15.

About the winter of 1852 the contractors, grading the road-bed of the old Galena & Chi- cago Union Railroad, made a fill of six or eight feet across a frozen slough, a mile or so north- west of Gilbert's. When the frost came out of the ground the next spring, the embankment sank through the vegetable mold, or crust,

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

that had formed over a hidden lake, and the company had a canal instead of a railroad embankment. Many pickerel, some of them fully eighteen inches long, besides other fish, were caught in this canal. It was very deep, and it proved an expensive job to fill it. While the road was being built, a temporary track was laid around this canal on the northeast, over which the trains passed while the filling was being done. A number of the cars used ran off the dump and were lost in the deep water. The hill skirted by the temporary track was all put into this hole, as was also a large portion of the hill at the northwestern end of the canal. Passengers on the railway can now readily observe the evidences of this heavy work.

The southwest portion of the township was settled generally by native Americans and a few Germans, the central portion from south- east to northwest by Scotch-Irish and Irish, and the northeast part by Scotch and Ameri- cans. Evelyn R. Starks prospected along the army trail (then but three years after the army passed over it as an old Indian trail), from the home of a friend who had settled near Naper- ville, in the fall of 1835. The Indians were still here, and nobody else. Starks was then twenty-two years old, and the lonely trip of this young man may be imagined, and shows the spirit of the pioneers. Nobody knows how much time he spent in prospecting, but he searched until he found a beautiful body of rich prairie land sheltered by excellent wood land on the west-northwest, and sloping gently toward the south and east, with a fine pool of clear water half encircled by a fine tree-cov- ered bank. Here he made a well marked claim and returned to his friends for the winter. Early the following spring he was back upon his claim making improvements, and was soon joined by his uncle, Elijah Rich, who entered the lands south of Starks' claim. When the government surveys were made, their claims were on the south half of Sections 29 and 30 and the north half of 31. No better pioneers than they came to the county; and no finer farms can be found than the ones on which they lived and died. Solomon Gage made his pleasant home near them, and here the school house, cemetery and Sunset (or Stark) Station is located. Hemerick, Daum, Widener, Smith- ing, Hauslein and other Germans settled north

of them. In the early days Mason Sherburn kept a tavern on the old stage-road, a couple of miles north, near the center of Section 18 and about a mile east of "Henpeck," and this was strongly suspected to be a hiding place for the bold horse-thieves that infested the coun- try about 1850. Nathaniel Crampton, Noble King and a Mr. Seymour came in 1836, and Francis and Straw Pingree in 1837. Rev. An- drew and Dr. Daniel Pingree-both unusually strong, useful men-joined their brothers here in 1838. The Pingrees took large bodies of land to the east of Starks, and established the Pingree Grove postoffice and station. During the same year Andrew McCornack came with his fine family, the vanguard of the host of sturdy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who were to follow. Thomas and William Moore and Wil- liam Lynch (the latter, because of his small stature called "Wee" Lynch), the Christies, Rileys, Atchinsons, Eakins, McQueens, Shed- dens, and others joined this vigorous element of the population. The Fraziers, Stevens, Taze- wells, Thomas Rich, Oliver Plummer and Wil- liam Bellows were also settlers in the early development of this township. Mr. John Hun- ter ("Uncle Johnny") was a noted and useful man, an excellent and successful farmer, and an active politician. Northeast of these came Clinton, Caton, Tobin, Solon, McFarlan, Pat- rick, Thomas and Brian O'Brien, Long, Mur- phy, Galligan, Hays, Freeman, Owen Burk, Welch Dwyre, Hayden, Devine, Costello, Clin- nin and others from the Emerald Isle. They settled in what was called "the Barrens," and by industry, thrift, and good sense, converted it into a region of productive farms and happy homes. Northwest of them were located the Duffs, Binnies and Ashbaughs, among the old settlers.

The name "Rutland" was suggested by E. R. Starks, the first Supervisor of the township. Adelia, daughter of Elijah Rich, was the first white child born in the township, and the first death was that of his mother, Hannah Rich. Her grave was the first in the Stark cemetery. Starks was the first Justice of the Peace, and in 1839 he performed the first marriage ceremony in the township for Lewis Bandall and Miss Brady. The first church was erected by the Catholics near the cemetery, about a mile and a half southeast of Gilbert's, as early as 1846. Elijah Wilcox and Andrew Pingree bought the

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

Gilbert farm and platted the village in 1855, and Andrew and Hannah Pingree platted the Pingree Grove Village in 1882, upon the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP.

St. Charles is the center one of the eastern tier of five townships in the county, embracing Town 40, Range 8. Its lands were first offered for sale by the Government on June 6, 1842, all having been practically claimed and preempted before that date. The east bank of the river was nearly covered by the heavy oak, hickory, maple, ash, black walnut and butternut timber of the "Little Wood." The low, level, but very fertile prairie on its eastern border stretched away across the old army trail into Du Page County, while a little south of the center of the township, lightly connected with the woods by open woodland, was a beautiful body of stately forest called "Round Grove." The two arms of Norton Creek, which unite near the centers of Sections 14 and 23, half encircle this fine grove, and from this junction flow to the river near the center of Section 15. Lewis Norton built a saw-mill on this stream about 1845, but as he was one of the volunteers for the Mexican War, very little sawing was done at the mill. Fur- ther north the prairie is drained by the small streams that meet near the dividing line of Sections 1 and 12, forming Brewster Creek, on which Charles Brewster, son of "Father" E. W. Brewster, operated a saw-mill in the early days. Passing near Wayne, the old Indian trail followed by General Scott's army ap- proached the river on "the divide" between these streams. West of the river there was a fringe of woodland along its bank and along Ferson Creek, the western part of the county being beautiful rolling prairie land. Near the north line of Section 11 the river makes a broad sweeping curve to the west and a half mile north of west, following this course about a mile and a half, when it swings away to the south again near the center of the township. In the broad channel of its northwestward course lie five separate islands well above the ordinary flow of the water. The half encircled promontory-like bluff is bold and high, and was densely covered with heavy forest trees, in- cluding many sugar maples. On the high

northwesterly and westerly bank of the stream, at and below the second bend, stood stately great white oak trees, under whose broad spreading branches glimpses of the prairie land to the west could be seen. Two rippling brooks from the highlands above had cut their chan- nels down to the underlying bed of limestone rock, and near the highway fell in little shim- mering cascades toward the river.

As early as 1834 the beauty of this location and the evident fertility of its soil attracted Rice Fay, a strong, enterprising man who set- tled and long resided upon Section 3, and sub- sequently erected thereon the fine, substantial stone dwelling, since occupied by the Keating family. Soon a blacksmith shop was opened by the river roadside, two or three small stone houses were built and a little store established, and the settlement became known as Fayville. In 1836 the Rev. D. W. Ellmore entered a claim west and south of Captain Fay's. He laid plans for the location here of a large indus- trial training school, and in 1851, with these plans in view, platted a village called Asylum. He also had a bill for the incorporation of his school introduced in the Legislature; but his sudden death by lightning, on July 29, 1854, .ended these philanthropic efforts of a cultured, broad-minded Christian pioneer. Three post- offices-Fayville, Silver Glen and Riverside- have been established and discontinued at this place. Quite extensive lime kilns were opened here in the early days.

The different branches of Ferson Creek enter the northwestern corner of the township, and with numerous curves and windings, serving to water and drain many farms, find the river near the southeast corner of Section 21. There were a few red cedar trees on the rocky banks of the streams, besides extensive deposits of excellent gravel and sand on the higher knolls along Brewster, Norton and Ferson creeks, which are now of value. In the spring of 1834, Evan Shelby and William Franklin, brothers- in-law, followed the army and Indian trails to a beautiful location near the Fox River, where they marked claims and built a log cabin, and in August of that year Mrs. Franklin came with her two children. Elijah Garton with his wife and six children, and John W. Gray, his son- in-law; Mr. and Mrs. Albert Howard, with six children; Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Steward and four children (a most surprising party of emigrants) arrived at Round Grove, it is said,

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

on May 8, 1834. Friend Marks and family, William Arnold, John M. and Alexander Laugh- lin; Walter Wilson, with his sons, John C. and Thomas, and his son-in-law, Thomas Barlan; Mrs. Moses Young, with her sons Samuel, Ste- phen, Joel and Daniel C., and her daughter Jerusha; Robert Moody, J. T. Wheeler, John Kittridge (after whom Dr. Kittridge Wheeler, D. D., the distinguished Baptist divine, is named), Nathan Perry, William Welch (who settled on the army trail beside Brewster Creek, on what became Section 1), and his son-in-law, Tucker; William Wilson, Melvin Marsh and James Davis all came this first year, and the most of them entered land along the east side of the timber. It is said that a settler named Crandall built a cabin on the west side near Captain F. H. Bowman's residence in 1834. Three of the most active and enterprising men who have contributed to the progress of the town and county-Solomon Dunham, Mark W. Fletcher and Calvin Ward-came in 1835, as also did Charles B. Gray, Ephraim and O. W. Perkins, Warren Tyler and his son Ira, Daniel Marvin, the first blacksmith, and many others. In this year the first school was opened in a part of Warren Tyler's double log house, stand- ing where the "Western Enterprise" tavern was afterward built. It was taught by Miss Pru- dence Ward, who, in serene old age, still sur- vives, crowned with the glory of a long life of Christian kindliness and exemplary usefulness. In 1835 Friend Marks performed the first road- work in the county by marking and improving a wagon track past his cabin (which was the first tavern) to Herrington's Ford. It is said that Garton and Howard drove their ox-teams to the Wabash settlement after supplies for these pioneers in the winter of 1834-5, which was unusually severe, the mercury during their trip ranging lower than twenty degrees below zero. . J. M. Laughlin has stated that in June, 1835, he drove to Chicago with two yoke of oxen which had to swim in crossing the Des Plaines, and that the level land, from Oak Ridge in, was entirely covered with water.

In January, 1835, J. T. Wheeler and Jerusha Young were married at the home of Gideon Young, who then lived at Naperville. J. M. Laughlin and Emily Garton were married at Elijah Garton's the same month; Dean Ferson and Prudence Ward were married in "Charles- town," as it was then called, on September 14, 1835. Death, as well as Love, was busy in the

little colony. Stephen Young died May 8th, and it is said that, at his funeral, the Rev. Mr. Perry, a Congregational clergyman, preached the first sermon in the township. That fall Alzina Garton, twin sister of Mrs. Gray, died and was buried at Round Grove.

Crowds of settlers came in 1836. Among them were John Gloss, the Bairds and the Howards ( Frances Christmas Baird was born on December 25 of that year), Zebina Brown, George Parker, J. H. Andrus, James T. Durant ( whose brother, Bryant, arrived the next year), Nathan H. Dearborn, Dr. Whipple, Dr. Nathan Collins, Horace Bancroft (the first postmaster, who, four years later, refused to continue in office under General Harrison's Whig adminis- tration ), Asa Hazeltine, Valentine Randall, Major W. G. and Smith Conklin, Amos N. Locke and Bela T. Hunt. During this year plans for utilizing the water power, and laying out and improving the village were matured, and in large measure carried forward. About this date excellent families were also settling in the northwest portion of the township, prom- inent among whom were Joel Harvey, James O. Burr, Mark Bisbee and Garritt Norton, each of . whom established farms that have been models of thrift and productiveness.

Among all these early settlers will be noticed the names of families who have contributed very largely to the development and prosperity of the township and county. Famous camp- meetings have been held, from the very earliest times, in the beautiful glades of the timbered lands bordering the eastern line of the town- ship. St. Charles is one of the most prosperous dairy districts of the county, and its later de- velopment forms an important part of the prog- ress of the county.

SUGAR GROVE TOWNSHIP.

Township 38 North, Range 7 East, forms the middle of the tier of three southern towns of the county, and if people interested in the county will only remember that its southern line of townships constitute the Thirty-eighth North of the Base Line, and that its western tier are in the Sixth Range East of the Meridian Line, they will have no difficulty in accurately locating any tract of land of which they have the government description. Of the ten agri- cultural townships in the county, no one can

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

authoritatively declare either one to be the best. Yet this is often claimed for Sugar Grove, and few, if any, will doubt that it is at least "as good as the best." Lying directly west of the populous and wealthy city of Auro- ra, whose western limit is but a mile and a half from the township line, and closely con- nected by highways as good as the city streets, it feels the stimulus of the wealth and culture of the metropolis, and its land values are proba- bly the highest of any in the towns away from the river. Its northeasterly portion along Lake Run and Blackberry Creek is well covered with excellent woodland, portions of which, in the early days, was heavy timber and the remain- der-about two-thirds of the township-was beautiful prairie, with a skirt of timber at the southwest bordering a branch of the Big Rock Creek. Every foot of the soil is very fertile, and well supplied with pure, excellent water; and the abundance and convenience of wood and water, together with the handsome "lay of the land," was very attractive to the pioneers seek- ing homes in a delightful region of absolutely unoccupied country, where they had "all out of doors" to choose from.

Very early in the spring of 1834, Asa McDole left his home in the State of New York, and started alone to explore the Far West. In Wood County, Ohio, he camped for the night with James and Isaac C. Isbell (brothers), Parmeno Isbell (a cousin), James Carman, and an elderly man named Bishop, who had just left Medina County, Ohio, for the same purpose. They had arranged for a third brother, Lyman Isbell, whose wife was Carman's sister, to join them when they had found a satisfactory loca- tion, and bring on the family, consisting of Lyman's wife and two children, Mother Isbell and her daughter Miranda. Of course McDole joined them. They had two ox-teams, some axes and a few implements, a little food, blank- ets, etc., and each man had a flint-lock musket. The muskets were as serviceable for "flashing powder in the pan" and so starting a fire-for matches were scarce, if not unknown, in those days-as they were for shooting game. The Isbells also had four cows. This was April 27. Journeying westward they crossed the Fox River at Oswego, where there was one cabin on each side of the river, and thence pushed on nearly northward across the trackless country, until on the 10th of May, when, having camped in a most beautiful grove of maple trees near

a pleasant stream, they made up their minds that nothing more desirable could be found. They saw plain indications that the Indians had been accustomed to making sugar from these trees, and here they found an abandoned In- dian tepee, or shack, which they used while building, for immediate shelter, the first cabin erected in the township. Next they constructed for the expected family quite a commodious and comfortable log house farther north and west, near the line of Sections 10 and 9. Each was made entirely of wood "from the tree," and with very few and simple tools. In July Lyman arrived with the families, driving the first horse team that was brought into the county. They marked a number of choice claims, and were doubtless the only whites west of the river until Joseph Ingham came in the following winter, and settled lower on the Blackberry below its junction with Lake Run. The next spring his son Cyrus Ingham came with his father's family. These were Oneida County, New York, people of the best quality. Joseph's brother, Samuel Ingham, came four years later with his excellent family, and took up a large tract of land. The brothers, with their descendants, have always been active pro- moters of all worthy enterprises, have filled many public positions, and maintained high standing and wide acquaintance throughout the county. Harry White, Asa and Rodney Mc- Dole, William A. Tanner and Theophilus Wil- son-names as familiar as household words in_ the county-came also in 1835, but Rodney Mc- Dole, after locating his claim, returned to Me- nard County for the bride he had married in January of that year. He came back in the spring of 1836, and lived to be the oldest set- tler in the township. In 1833 or '34 he carried a chain for "A. Lincoln, surveyor," in Sanga- mon County, it is said, and over twenty years later the great President was glad to meet and greet his former chainman and friend.

A number of other settlers came in that sea- son, and, in the spring of 1836, Silas Reynolds, Lorin Inman, Samuel Taylor, Silas Gardner, Nathan H. Palmer, Samuel Cogswell, Isaac Gates, Joseph Bishop and Silas Leonard were located here. James Judd and H. B. Dinsmore also came in this fall. The next year (1837) Ira H. Fitch and family, including his parents, took up a claim that became a part of Section 32, and opened a blacksmith shop in connec- tion with his farm. The hamlet called Jericho

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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.

gathered about this settlement. John Morris, the Austin family, Captain Jones, Reuben John- son, Charles Simmons, Ezekiel Mighell and P. Y. Bliss, and doubtless a number of others, came also in 1837. Mr. Bliss built a frame building near the northwest corner of Section 10, in 1838, and "Father" Clark preached here the first sermon in the township. In June, 1839, Mr. Bliss put in a stock of merchandise, and this first store in the town, it was said, drew trade from Dundee to Yorkville, and from Warrenville to Shabbona Grove. His business for a time seemed to overshadow that of any merchant on the river. Mr. Bliss has stated that, in going from his place to Geneva in 1838, he passed not a building, fence, furrow or sign of human habitation or occupation, and that the wooden court house, built by Col. R. J. Hamilton, was the first indication of settle- ment to be seen. To indicate the generous feel- ing of neighborly helpfulness that prevailed, he said that one morning Isaac C. Isbell called at his store and told him he meant to kill a beef on the following Saturday morning, and wished Bliss would tell any of the neighbors whom he happened to meet to come to his place and get a piece of the meat; and that, when they came, they found the dressed quarters of beef, with a knife and hatchet by a block, ready for each to take such portion as he wished.

The township has always been noted for its educational zeal. Schools and circulating li- braries were established at an early day and steadily maintained. The first library, opened in the winter of 1843, came to contain 264 vol- umes of the best literature. It was kept at the home of S. G. Paul on Section 16. Another whose books reached about 500 in number, passed to the unique school in District No. 7, so long and ably presided over by Prof. F. H. Hall. This school, in its best estate, was large- ly the product of the philanthropic zeal and enthusiasm of Thomas Judd, an early settler, to whose efforts the county owes much of its progress. His statistics regarding the pro- ductive capacity of the country, greatly encour- aged the builders of the pioneer Galena & Chi- cago Union Railroad, and his contributions to the "Prairie Farmer," and papers read before the farmers' institutes and agricultural soci- eties, did much to stimulate improvement in methods of farming, at that date the only pro- ductive industry of the people.

The name of the township did not have to

be imported, for it just naturally suggested itself. The first marriage in the township was that of Dr. N. H. Palmer and the pioneer girl, Miranda Isbell, in the fall of 1835; and, during that same tall, A. G. McDole, a son of Rodney McDole, and Charlotte Isbell, a daughter of I. C. Isbell, were born. The first death was that of a child of Mr. Carman's in 1835. A trail and wagon track from Chicago to Dixon passed through the township, and beside it, on Section 14, Robert Atkinson opened the first tavern. Asa McDole was the first Justice of the Peace, elected in 1837, and his death on September 16, 1839, was perhaps the first among the adults. Sugar Grove postoffice was the first in the township, established at Thomas Slater's house, near the center of Section 15, on September 18, 1840. The township has ever been a productive grain and stock-growing section, and while it is extensively given to dairying, there is still a great deal of fine stock, both reared and pur- chased, and fitted for the Chicago market. The Chicago & Iowa Railroad crosses the township near its center, and the district has exceptional- ly good facilities for shipment on this line, as well as the main line of the Burlington Sys- tem. Sugar Grove is the only incorporated vil- lage in the township.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County, Part 142

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