Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 26

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724

USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I > Part 26

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DANENHOWER, John Wilson, Arctic explorer, was born in Chicago, Sept. 30, 1849-the son of W. W. Danenhower, a journalist. After passing through the schools of Chicago and Washington, he graduated from the United States Naval Acad- emy at Annapolis in 1870, was successively com- missioned as Ensign, Master and Lieutenant, and served on expeditions in the North Pacific and in the Mediterranean. In 1878 he joined the Arctic steamer Jeannette at Havre, France, as second in command under Lieut. George W. De Long; pro- ceeding to San Francisco in July, 1879, the steamer entered the Arctic Ocean by way of Behring Straits. Here, having been caught in an ice-pack, the vessel was held twenty-two months, Lieutenant Danenhower meanwhile being dis- abled most of the time by ophthalmia. The crew, as last compelled to abandon the steamer, dragged their boats over the ice for ninety-five days until they were able to launch them in open water, but were soon separated by a gale. The boat commanded by Lieutenant Danenhower reached the Lena Delta, on the north coast of Siberia, where the crew were rescued by natives, landing Sept. 17, 1881. After an ineffectual search on the delta for the crews of the other two boats, Lieutenant Danenhower, with his crew, made the journey of 6,000 miles to Orenburg, finally arriving in the United States in June, 1882. He has told the story of the expedition in "The

Narrative of the Jeannette," published in 1882. Died, at Annapolis, Md., April 20, 1887.

DANVERS, a village of McLean County, on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway. The section is agricultural. The town has a bank and a newspaper. Population (1880), 460; (1890), 506; (1900), 607; (1910), 593.

DANVILLE, the county-seat of Vermilion County, on Vermilion River and on five impor- tant lines of railroad; in rich coal-mining district and near large deposits of shale and soapstone, which are utilized in manufacture of sewer-pipe, paving and fire-clay brick. The city has car-shops and numerous factories, water- works, electric lights, paved streets, several banks, twenty-seven churches, five graded schools and one high school, and eight newspapers, two daily. A Soldiers' Home is located three miles east of the city. Pop. (1900), 16,354; (1910), 27,871.

DANVILLE, OLNEY, & OHIO RIVER RAIL- ROAD. (See Chicago & Ohio River Railroad.)

DANVILLE, URBANA, BLOOMINGTON & PEKIN RAILROAD. (See Peoria & Eastern Railroad.)

D'ARTAIGUIETTE, Pierre, a French com- mandant of Illinois from 1734 to 1736, having been appointed by Bienville, then Governor of Louisiana. He was distinguished for gallantry and courage. He defeated the Natchez Indians, but, in an unsuccessful expedition against the Chickasaws, was wounded, captured and burned at the stake.

DAVENPORT, George, soldier, pioneer and trader, born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1783, came to this country in 1804, and soon after enlisted in the United States army, with the rank of sergeant. He served gallantly on various expeditions in the West, where he obtained a knowledge of the Indians which was afterward of great value to him. During the War of 1812 his regiment was sent East, where he partici- pated in the defense of Fort Erie and in other enterprises. In 1815, his term of enlistment hav- ing expired and the war ended, he entered the service of the contract commissary. He selected the site for Fort Armstrong and aided in planning and supervising its construction. He cultivated friendly relations with the surrounding tribes, and, in 1818, built a double log house, married, and engaged in business as a fur-trader, near the site of the present city of Rock Island. He had the confidence and respect of the savages, was successful and his trading posts were soon scat- tered through Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1823 he piloted the first steamboat through the

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upper Mississippi, and, in 1825, was appointed the first postmaster at Rock Island, being the only white civilian resident there. In 1826 he united his business with that of the American Fur Com- pany, in whose service he remained. Although he employed every effort to induce President Jackson to make a payment to Black Hawk and his followers to induce them to emigrate across the Mississippi voluntarily, when that Chief commenced hostilities, Mr. Davenport tendered his services to Governor Reynolds, by whom he was commissioned Quartermaster-General with the rank of Colonel. Immigration increased rapidly after the close of the Black Hawk War. In 1835 a company, of which he was a member, founded the town of Davenport, opposite Rock Island, which was named in his honor. In 1837 and '42 he was largely instrumental in negoti- ating treaties by which the Indians ceded their lands in Iowa to the United States. In the latter year he gave up the business of fur-trading, having accumulated a fortune through hard labor and scrupulous integrity, in the face often of grave perils. He had large business interests in nearly every town in his vicinity, to all of which he gave more or less personal attention. On the night of July 4, 1843, he was assassinated at his home by robbers. For a long time the crime was shrouded in mystery, but its perpetrators were ultimately detected and brought to punishment.

DAVIS, David, jurist and United States Senator, was born in Cecil County, Md., March 9, 1815; pursued his academic studies at Kenyon College, Ohio, and studied law at Yale. He settled at Bloomington, Ill., in 1836, and, after practicing law there until 1844, was elected to the lower house of the Fourteenth General Assembly. After serving in the Constitutional Convention of 1847, he was elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit under the new Constitution in 1848, being re-elected in 1855 and '61. He was a warm, per- sonal friend of Abraham Lincoln, who, in 1862, placed him upon the bench of the United States Supreme Court. He resigned his high judicial honors to become United States Senator in 1877 as successor to Logan's first term. On Oct. 13, 1881, he was elected President pro tem. of the Senate, serving in this capacity to the end of his term in 1885. He died at his home in Blooming- ton, June 26, 1886.

DAVIS, George R., lawyer and Congressman, was born at Three Rivers, Mass., January 3, 1840; received a common school education, and a classical course at Williston Seminary, Easthamp- ton, Mass. From 1862 to 1865 he served in the

Union army, first as Captain in the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry, and later as Major in the Third Rhode Island Cavalry. After the war he removed to Chicago, where he still resides. By profession he is a lawyer. He took a prominent part in the organization of the Chicago militia, was elected Colonel of the First Regiment, I. N. G., and was for a time the senior Colonel in the State service. In 1876 he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress, but was elected in 1878, and re-elected in 1880 and 1882. From 1886 to 1890 he was Treasurer of Cook County. He took an active and influential part in securing the location of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and was Director-General of the Exposition from its inception to its close, by his executive ability demonstrating the wis- dom of his selection. Died Nov. 25, 1899.

DAVIS, Hasbrouck, soldier and journalist, was born at Worcester, Mass., April 23, 1827, being the son of John Davis, United States Senator and Governor of Massachusetts, known in his lifetime as "Honest John Davis." The son came to Chi- cago in 1855 and commenced the practice of law; in 1861 joined Colonel Voss in the organiza- tion of the Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, being elected Lieutenant-Colonel and, on the retirement of Colonel Voss in 1863, succeeding to the colonelcy. In March, 1865, he was brevetted Brigadier-Gen- eral, remaining in active service until August, 1865, when he resigned. After the war he was, for a time, editor of "The Chicago Evening Post," was City Attorney of the City of Chicago from 1867 to '69, but later removed to Massachusetts- Colonel Davis was drowned at sea, Oct. 19, 1870, by the loss of the steamship Cambria, while on a voyage to Europe.

DAVIS, James M., early lawyer, was born in Barren County, Ky., Oct. 9, 1793, came to Illinois in 1817, located in Bond County and is said to have taught the first school in that county. He became a lawyer and a prominent leader of the Whig party, was elected to the Thirteenth Gen- eral Assembly (1842) from Bond County, and to the Twenty-first from Montgomery in 1858, hav- ing, in the meantime, become a citizen of Hillsboro; was also a member of the State Consti- tutional Convention of 1847. Mr. Davis was a man of striking personal appearance, being over six feet in height, and of strong individuality. After the dissolution of the Whig party he identi- fied himself with the Democracy and was an intensely bitter opponent of the war policy of the Government. Died, at Hillsboro, Sept. 17, 1866.

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DAVIS, John A., soldier, was born in Craw- ford County, Pa., Oct. 25, 1823; came to Stephen- son County, Ill., in boyhood and served as Representative in the General Assembly of 1857 and '59; in September, 1861, enlisted as a private, was elected Captain and, on the organization of the Forty-sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, at Camp Butler, was commissioned its Colonel. He participated in the capture of Fort Donelson, and in the battle of Shiloh was desperately wounded by a shot through the lungs, but recovered in time to join his regiment before tlie battle of Corinth, where, on Oct. 4, 1862, he fell mortally wounded, dying a few days after. On receiving a request from some of his fellow-citi- zens, a few days before his death, to accept a nomination for Congress in the Freeport District, Colonel Davis patriotically replied: "I can serve my country better in following the torn banner of my regiment in the battlefield."

DAVIS, Levi, lawyer and State Auditor, was born in Cecil County, Md., July 20, 1806; gradu- ated at Jefferson College, Pa., in 1828, and was admitted to the bar at Baltimore in 1830. The following year he removed to Illinois, settling at Vandalia, then the capital. In 1835 Governor Duncan appointed him Auditor of Public Accounts, to which office he was elected by the Legislature in 1837, and again in 1838. In 1846 he took up his residence at Alton. He attained prominence at the bar and was, for several years, attorney for the Chicago & Alton and St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Companies, in which he was also a Director. Died, at Alton, March 4, 1897.

DAVIS, Nathan Smith, M.D., LL.D., physi- cian, educator and editor, was born in Chenango County, N. Y., Jan. 9, 1817; took a classical and scientific course in Cazenovia Seminary; in 1837 graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, winning several prizes during his course; the same year began practice at Bing- hamton; spent two years (1847-49) in New York City, when he removed to Chicago to accept the chair of Physiology and General Pathology in Rush Medical College. In 1859 he accepted a similar position in the Chicago Medical College (now the medical department of Northwestern University), where he still remains. Dr. Davis had not only been a busy practitioner, but a volu- minous writer on general and special topics con- nected with his profession, having been editor at different times of several medical periodicals, including "The Chicago Medical Journal," "The Medical Journal and Examiner," and "The

Journal of the American Medical Association." He was also prominent in State, National and Inter- national Medical Congresses, and was one of the founders of the Northwestern University, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Chicago His- torical Society, the Illinois State Microscopical So- ciety and the Union College of Law, besides other scientific associations. Died June 16, 1904.

DAVIS, Oliver L., lawyer, was born in New York City, Dec. 20, 1819; after being in the employ of the American Fur Company some seven years, came to Danville, Ill., in 1841 and commenced studying law the next year; was elected to the lower branch of the Seventeenth and Twentieth General Assemblies, first as a Democrat and next (1856) as a Republican; served on the Circuit Bench in 1861-66, and again in 1873-79, being assigned in 1877 to the Appellate bench. Died, Jan. 12, 1892.

DAWSON, John, early legislator, was born in Virginia, in 1791; came to Illinois in 1827, set- tling in Sangamon County ; served five terms in the lower house of the General Assembly (1830, '34, '36, '38 and '46), during a part of the time being the colleague of Abraham Lincoln. He was one of the celebrated "Long Nine" who repre- sented Sangamon County at the time of the removal of the State capital to Springfield; was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847. Died, Nov. 12, 1850.

DEAF AND DUMB, ILLINOIS INSTITU- TION FOR EDUCATION OF, located at Jack- sonville, established by act of the Legislature, Feb. 23, 1839, and the oldest of the State charitable institutions. Work was not begun until 1842, but one building was ready for partial occupancy in 1846 and was completed in 1849. (In 1871 this building, then known as the south wing, was declared unsafe, and was razed and rebuilt.) The center building was completed in 1852 and the north wing in 1857. Other additions and new buildings have been added from time to time, such as new dining halls, workshops, barns, bakery, refrigerator house, kitchens, a gymnasium, separate cot- tages for the sexes, etc. At present (1895) the institution is probably the largest, as it is un- questionably one of the best conducted, of its class in the world. The number of pupils in 1894 was 716. Among its employés are men and women of ripe culture and experience, who have been con- nected with it for more than a quarter of a century.

DEARBORN, Luther, lawyer and legislator, was born at Plymouth, N. H., March 24, 1820,

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and educated in Plymouth schools and at New Hampton Academy; in youth removed to Dear- born County, Ind., where he taught school and served as deputy Circuit Clerk; then came to Mason County, Ill., and, in 1844, to Elgin. Here he was elected Sheriff and, at the expiration of his term, Circuit Clerk, later engaging in the banking business, which proving disastrous in 1857, he returned to Mason County and began the practice of law. He then spent some years in Minnesota, finally returning to Illinois a second time, resumed practice at Havana, served one term in the State Senate (1876-80); in 1884 became member of a law firm in Chicago, but retired in 1887 to accept the attorneyship of the Chicago & Alton Railway, retaining this position until his death, which occurred suddenly at Springfield, April 5, 1889. For the last two years of his life Mr. Dearborn's residence was at Aurora.

DECATUR, the county-seat of Macon County; 39 miles east of Springfield and one mile north of the Sangamon River-also an important rail- way center. Three coal shafts are operated out- side the city. It is a center for the grain trade, having five elevators. Extensive car and repair shops are located there, and several important manufacturing industries flourish, among them three flouring mills. Decatur has paved streets, water-works, electric street railways, and excel- lent public schools, including one of the best and most noted high schools in the State. Two daily papers and one weekly (labor) journal are published there. Pop. (1900), 20,754; (1910), 31,140.

DECATUR EDITORIAL CONVENTION. (See Anti-Nebraska Editorial Convention.)

DECATUR & EASTERN RAILWAY. (See Indiana, Decatur & Western Railway.)

DECATUR, MATTOON & SOUTHERN RAIL- ROAD. (See Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway. )

DECATUR, SULLIVAN & MATTOON RAIL- ROAD. (See Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway.)

DEEP SNOW, THE, an event occurring in the winter of 1830-31 and referred to by old settlers of Illinois as constituting an epoch in State his- tory. The late Dr. Julian M. Sturtevant, Presi- dent of Illinois College, in an address to the "Old Settlers" of Morgan County, a few years before his death, gave the following account of it: "In the interval between Christmas, 1830, and Janu- ary, 1831, snow fell all over Central Illinois to a depth of fully three feet on a level. Then came a rain with weather so cold that it froze as it

fell, forming a crust of ice over this three feet of snow, nearly, if not quite, strong enough to bear' a man, and finally over this crust there were a few inches of snow. The clouds passed away and the wind came down upon us from the north- west with extraordinary ferocity. For weeks- certainly not less than two weeks-the mercury in the thermometer tube was not, on any one morning, higher than twelve degrees below zero. This snow-fall produced constant sleighing for nine weeks." Other contemporaneous accounts say that this storm caused great suffering among both men and beasts. The scattered settlers, un- able to reach the mills or produce stores, were driven, in some cases, to great extremity for supplies; mills were stopped by the freezing up of streams, while deer and other game, sinking through the crust of snow, were easily captured or perished for lack of food. Birds and domestic fowls often suffered a like fate for want of sus- tenance or from the severity of the cold.

DEERE, John, manufacturer, was born at Middlebury, Vt., Feb. 7, 1804; learned the black- smith trade, which he followed until 1838, when he came west, settling at Grand Detour, in Ogle County ; ten years later removed to Moline, and there founded the plow-works which bear his name and of which he was President from 1868 until his death in 1886 .- Charles H. (Deere), son- of the preceding, was born in Hancock, Addison County Vt., March 28, 1837; educated in the common schools and at Iowa and Knox Acad- emies, and Bell's Commercial College, Chicago; became assistant and head book-keeper, travel- ing and purchasing agent of the Deere Plow Company, and, on its incorporation, Vice-Presi- dent and General Manager, until his father's death, when he succeeded to the Presidency. He was also founder of the Deere & Mansur Corn Planter Works, President of the Moline Water Power. Company, besides being a Director in various other concerns and in the branch houses of Deere & Co., in Kansas City, Des Moines, Council Bluffs and San Francisco. Notwith- standing his immense business interests, Mr. Deere found time for the discharge of public and patriotic duties, as shown by the fact that he was for years a member and Chairman of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics; a Commissioner from Illinois to the Vienna International Exposi- tion of 1873; one of the State Commissioners of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893; a Presidential Elector for the State-at-large in 1888, and a delegate to the National Republican Conven- tion at St. Louis, in 1896. Died Oct. 29, 1907.

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DEERING, William, manufacturer, was born at Paris, Oxford County, Maine, April 26, 1826, completed his education at the Readfield high school, in 1843, engaged actively in manufactur- ing, and during his time has assisted in establish- ing several large, successful business enterprises, including wholesale and commission dry-goods houses in Portland, Maine, Boston and New York. His greatest work has been the building up of the Deering Manufacturing Company, a main feature of which, for thirty years, has been the manu- facture of Marsh harvesters and other agricultural implements and appliances. This concern began operation in Chicago about 1870, at the present time (1899) occupying eighty acres in the north part of the city and employing some 4,000 hands. It is said to turn out a larger amount and greater variety of articles for the use of the agriculturist than any other establishment in the country, receiving its raw material from many foreign countries, including the Philippines, and distrib- uting its products all over the globe. Mr. Deer- ing continues to be President of the Company and a principal factor in the management of its immense business. He is liberal, public-spirited and benevolent, and his business career has been notable for the absence of controversies with his employés. He has been, for a number of years, one of the Trustees of the Northwestern Univer- sity at Evanston, and, at the present time, is President of the Board.

DE KALB, a city in De Kalb. County, 58 miles west of Chicago. Of late years it has grown rapidly, largely because of the introduction of new industrial enterprises. It contains a large wire drawing plant, barbed wire factories, foun- dry, agricultural implement works, machine shop, shoe factory and several minor manufac- turing establishments. It has banks, three news- papers, electric street railway, eight miles of paved streets, nine churches and three graded schools. It is the site of the Northern State Normal School, located in 1895. Population (1880), 1,598; (1890), 2,579; (1900), 5,904; (1910), 8,102.

DE KALB COUNTY, originally a portion of La Salle County, and later of Kane, was organized in 1837, and named for Baron De Kalb, the Revolutionary patriot. Its area is 650 square miles and population (in 1910), 33,457. The land is elevated and well drained, lying between Fox and Rock Rivers. Prior to 1835 the land belonged to the Pottawatomie Indians, who maintained several villages and their own tribal government. No sooner had the aborigines been removed than white settlers appeared in large numbers, and,

in September, 1835, a convocation was held on the banks of the Kishwaukee, to adopt a tempo- rary form of government. The public lands in the county were sold at auction in Chicago in 1843. Sycamore (originally called Orange) is the county-seat, and, in 1890, had a population of 2,987. Brick buildings were first erected at Sycamore by J. S. Waterman and the brothers Mayo. In 1854, H. A. Hough established the first newspaper, "The Republican Sentinel." Other prosperous towns are De Kalb (population, 2,579), Cortland, Malta and Somonauk. The sur- face is generally rolling, upland prairie, with numerous groves and wooded tracts along the principal streams. Various lines of railroad trav- erse the county, which embraces one of the wealthiest rural districts in the State.

DE KALB & GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD. (See Chicago Great Western Railway.)

DELAVAN, a thriving city in Tazewell County, on the line of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, at the point of its intersection with the Peoria and Pekin Division of the Illinois Central Railway, 34 niiles west-southwest of Bloomington and 24 miles south of Peoria. Grain is extensively grown in the adjacent territory, and much shipped from Delavan. The place supports two banks, tile and brick factory, creamery, and two weekly papers. It also has five churches and a graded school. Pop. (1900), 1,304; (1910), 1,175.

DEMENT, Henry Dodge, ex-Secretary of State, was born at Galena, Ill., in 1840-the son of Colonel John Dement, an early and prominent citizen of the State, who held the office of State Treasurer and was a member of the Constitu- tional Conventions of 1847 and 1870. Colonel Dement having removed to Dixon about 1845, the subject of this sketch was educated there and at Mount Morris. Having enlisted in the Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry in 1861, he was elected a Second Lieutenant and soon promoted to First Lieutenant-also received from Governor Yates a complimentary commission as Captain for gal- lantry at Arkansas Post and at Chickasaw Bayou, where the commander of his regiment, Col. J. B. Wyman, was killed. Later he served with General Curtis in Mississippi and in the Fifteenth Army Corps in the siege of Vicksburg. After leaving the army he engaged in the manu- facturing business for some years at Dixon. Cap- tain Dement entered the State Legislature by election as Representative from Lee County in 1872, was re-elected in 1874 and, in 1876, was pro- moted to the Senate, serving in the Thirtieth and Thirty-first General Assemblies. In 1880 he was

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chosen Secretary of State, and re-elected in 1884, serving eight years. The last public position held by Captain Dement was that of Warden of the State Penitentiary at Joliet, to which he was appointed in 1891, serving two years. His present home is at Oak Park, Cook County.

DEMENT, John, was born in Sumner County, Tenn., in April, 1804. When 13 years old he accompanied his parents to Illinois, settling in Franklin County, of which he was elected Sheriff in 1826, and which he represented in the General Assemblies of 1828 and '30. He served with distinction during the Black Hawk War, having previously had experience in two Indian cam- paigns. In 1831 he was elected State Treasurer by the Legislature, but, in 1836, resigned this office to represent Fayette County in the General Assembly and aid in the fight against the removal of the capital to Springfield. His efforts failing of success, he removed to the northern part of the State, finally locating at Dixon, where he became extensively engaged in manufacturing. In 1837 President Van Buren appointed him Receiver of Public Moneys, but he was removed by President Harrison in 1841; was reappointed by Polk in 1845, only to be again removed by Taylor in 1849 and reappointed by Pierce in 1853. He held the office from that date until it was abolished. He was a Democratic Presidential Elector in 1844; served in three Constitutional Conventions (1847, '62, and '70), being Temporary President of the two bodies last named. He was the father of Hon. Denry D. Dement, Secretary of State of Illi- nois from 1884 to 1888. He died at his home at Dixon, Jan. 16, 1883.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 26

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 724

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724