Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 29

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 29

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DUNLAP, Mathias Lane, horticulturist, was born at Cherry Valley, N. Y., Sept. 14, 1814; coming to La Salle County, Ill., in 1835, he taught school the following winter; then secured a clerkship in Chicago, and later became book- keeper for a firm of contractors on the Illinois & Michigan Canal, remaining two years. Having entered a body of Government land in the western part of Cook County, he turned his attention to farming, giving a portion of his time to survey- ing. In 1845 he became interested in horticulture and, in a few years, built up one of the most extensive nurseries in the West. In 1854 he was chosen a Representative in the Nineteenth Gen- eral Assembly from Cook County, and, at the following session, presided over the caucus which resulted in the nomination and final election of Lyman Trumbull to the United States Senate for the first time. Politically an anti-slavery Demo- crat, he espoused the cause of freedom in the Territories, while his house was one of the depots of the "underground railroad." In 1855 he pur- chased a half-section of land near Champaign, whither he removed, two years later, for the

prosecution of his nursery business. He was an active member, for many years, of the State Agri- cultural Society and an earnest supporter of the scheme for the establishment of an "Industrial University," which finally took form in the Uni- versity of Illinois at Champaign. From 1853 to his death he was the agricultural correspondent, first of "The Chicago Democratic Press," and later of "The Tribune," writing over the nom de plume of "Rural." Died, Feb. 14, 1875.

DU PAGE COUNTY, organized in 1839, named for a river which flows through it. It adjoins Cook County on the west and contains 340 square miles. In 1910 its population was 33,432. The county-seat was originally at Naperville, which was platted in 1842 and named in honor of Capt. Joseph Naper, who settled upon the site in 1831. In 1869 the county government was removed to Wheaton, the location of Wheaton College, where it yet remains. Besides Captain Naper, early settlers of prominence were Bailey Hobson (the pioneer in the township of Lisle), and Pierce Downer (in Downer's Grove). The chief towns are Wheaton (population, 1,622), Naperville (2,216), Hinsdale (1,584), Downer's Grove (960), and Roselle (450). Hinsdale and Roselle are largely populated by persons doing business in Chicago.

DU QUOIN, a city and railway junction in Perry County, 76 miles north of Cairo; has a foundry, machine shops, planing-mill, flour mills, salt works, ice factory, soda-water factory, creamery, coal mines, graded school, public library and four newspapers. Population (1890), 4,052; (1900), 4,353; (1910), 5,454.

DURBOROW, Allan Cathcart, ex-Congress- man, was born in Philadelphia, Nov. 20, 1857. When five years old he accompanied his parents to Williamsport, Ind., where he received his early education. He entered the preparatory department of Wabash College in 1872, and graduated from the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, in 1877. After two years' residence in Indianapolis, he removed to Chicago, where he engaged in business. Always active in local politics, he was elected by the Democrats in 1890, and again in 1892, Representative in Congress from the Second District, retiring with the close of the Fifty-third Congress. In his later years he was Treasurer of the Chicago Air-Line Express Company. Died Mar. 10, 1908.

DUSTIN, (Gen.) Daniel, soldier, was born in Topsham, Orange County, Vt., Oct. 5, 1820; received a common-school and academic educa- tion, graduating in medicine at Dartmouth Col-

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lege in 1846. After practicing three years at Corinth, Vt., he went to California in 1850 and engaged in mining, but three years later resumed the practice of his profession while conducting a mercantile business. He was subsequently chosen to the California Legislature from Nevada County, but coming to Illinois in 1858, he engaged in the drug business at Sycamore, De Kalb County, in connection with J. E. Elwood. On the breaking out of the war in 1861, he sold out his drug business and assisted in raising the Eighth Regiment Illinois Cavalry, and was com- missioned Captain of Company L. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and, in January, 1862, he was promoted to the position of Major, afterwards taking part in the battle of Manassas, and the great "seven days' fight" before Richmond. In September, 1862, the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry was mustered in at Dixon, and Major Dustin was commissioned its Colonel, soon after joining the Army of the Cumberland. After the Atlanta campaign he was assigned to the com- mand of a brigade in the Third Division of the Twelfth Army Corps, remaining in this position to the close of the war, meanwhile having been brevetted Brigadier-General for bravery displayed on the battle-field at Averysboro, N. C. He was mustered out at Washington, June 7, 1865, and took part in the grand review of the armies in that city which marked the close of the war. Returning to his home in De Kalb County, he was elected County Clerk in the following November, remaining in office four years. Sub- sequently he was chosen Circuit Clerk and ex- officio Recorder, and was twice thereafter re-elected-in 1884 and 1888. On the organization of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Quincy, in 1885, he was appointed by Governor Oglesby one of the Trustees, retaining the position until his death. In May, 1890, he was appointed by President Harrison Assistant United States Treasurer at Chicago, but died in office while on a visit with his daughter at Carthage, Mo., March 30, 1892. General Dustin was a Mason of high degree, and, in 1872, was chosen Right Eminent Commander of the Grand Commandery of the State.

DWIGHT, a prosperous city in Livingston County, 74 miles, by rail, south-southwest of Chi- cago, 52 miles northeast of Bloomington, and 22 miles east of Streator; has two banks, three weekly papers, six churches, five large warehouses, two electric light plants, complete water-works sys- tem, and four hotels. The city is the center of a

rich farming and stock-raising district. Dwight has attained celebrity as the location of the first of "Keeley Institutes," founded for the cure of the drink and morphine habit. Population (1900), 2,015; (1910), 2,156. These figures do not include the floating population, which is augmented by patients who receive treatment at the "Keeley Institute."

DYER, Charles Volney, M.D., pioneer physi- cian, was born at Clarendon, Vt., June 12, 1808; graduated in medicine at Middlebury College, in 1830; began practice at Newark, N. J., in 1831, and in Chicago in 1835. He was an uncomprom- ising opponent of slavery and an avowed sup- porter of the "underground railroad," and, in 1848, received the support of the Free-Soil party of Illinois for Governor. Dr. Dyer was also one of the original incorporators of the North Chicago Street Railway Company, and , his name was prominently identified with many local benevo- lent enterprises. Died, in Lake View (then a suburb of Chicago), April 24, 1878.

EARLVILLE, a city and railway junction in La Salle County, 52 miles northeast of Princeton, at the intersecting point of the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy and the Chicago & Northwestern Railroads. It is in the center of an agricultural and stock-raising district, and is an important shipping-point. It has seven churches, a graded school, one bank,'two weekly newspapers and manufactories of plows, wagons and carriages. Pop. (1890), 1,058; (1900), 1,122; (1910), 1,059.

EARLY, John, legislator and Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, was born of American parentage and Irish ancestry in Essex County, Canada West, March 17, 1828, and accompanied his parents to Cale- donia, Boone County, Ill., in 1846. His boyhood was passed upon his father's farm, and in youth he learned the trade (his father's) of carpenter and joiner. In 1852 he removed to Rockford, Winnebago County, and, in 1865, became State Agent of the New England Mutual Life Insur- ance Company. Between 1863 and 1866 he held sundry local offices, and, in 1869, was appointed by Governor Palmer a Trustee of the State Reform School. In 1870 he was elected State Senator and re-elected in 1874, serving in the Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth General Assemblies. In 1873 he was elected President pro tem. of the Senate, and, Lieut-Gov. Beveridge succeeding to the executive chair, he became ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor. In 1875 he was again the Republican nominee for the Presidency of the Senate, but was defeated

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by a coalition of Democrats and Independents. He died while a member of the Senate, Sept. 2, 1877.

EARTHQUAKE OF 1811. A series of the most remarkable earthquakes in the history of the Mississippi Valley began on the night of November 16, 1811, continuing for several months and finally ending with the destruction of Carac- cas, Venezuela, in March following. While the center of the earlier disturbance appears to have been in the vicinity of New Madrid, in Southeast- ern Missouri, its minor effects were felt through a wide extent of country, especially in the settled portions of Illinois. Contemporaneous history states that, in the American Bottom, then the most densely settled portion of Illinois, the results were very perceptible. The walls of a brick house belonging to Mr. Samuel Judy, a pioneer settler in the eastern edge of the bottom, near Edwardsville, Madison County, were cracked by the convulsion, the effects being seen for more than two generations. Gov. John Reynolds, then a young man of 23, living with his father's family in what was called the "Goshen Settle- ment," near Edwardsville, in his history of "My Own Times," says of it: "Our family were all sleeping in a log-cabin, and my father leaped out of bed, crying out, 'The Indians are on the house.' The battle of Tippecanoe had been recently fought, and it was supposed the Indians would attack the settlements. Not one in the family knew at that time it was an earthquake. The next morning another shock made us acquainted witlı it. . The cattle came running home bellowing with fear, and all animals were terribly alarmed. Our house cracked and quivered so we were fearful it would fall to the ground. In the American Bottom many chimneys were thrown down, and the church bell at Cahokia was sounded by the agitation of the building. It is said a shock of an earthquake was felt in Kaskas- kia in 1804, but I did not perceive it." Owing to the sparseness of the population in Illinois at that time, but little is known of the effect of the con- vulsion of 1811 elsewhere, but there are numerous "sink-holes" in Union and adjacent counties, between the forks of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, which probably owe their origin to this or some similar disturbance. "On the Kaskaskia River below Athens," says Governor Reynolds in his "Pioneer History," "the water and white sand were thrown up through a fissure of the earth."

EAST DUBUQUE, an incorporated city of Jo Daviess County, on the east bank of the Missis- sippi, 17 miles (by rail) northeast of Galena. It

is connected with Dubuque, Iowa, by a railroad and a wagon bridge two miles in length. It has a grain elevator, a box factory, a planing mill and manufactories of cultivators and sand drills. It has also a bank, two churches, good public schools and .a weekly newspaper. Population (1890), 1,069; (1900), 1,146; (1910), 1,253.

EASTON, (Col.) Rufus, pioneer, founder of the city of Alton; was born at Litchfield, Conn., May 4, 1774; studied law and practiced two years in Oneida County, N. Y .; emigrated to St. Louis in 1804, and was commissioned by President Jefferson Judge of the Territory of Louisiana, and also became the first Postmaster of St. Louis, in 1808. From 1814 to 1818 he served as Delegate in Congress front Missouri Territory, and, on the organization of the State of Missouri (1821), was appointed Attorney-General for the State, serving until 1826. His death occurred at St. Charles, Mo., July 5, 1834. Colonel Easton's connection with Illinois history is based chiefly upon the fact that he was the founder of the present city of Alton, which he laid out, in 1817, on a tract of land of which he had obtained possession at the mouth of the Little Piasa Creek, naming the town for his son. Rev. Thomas Lippincott, prominently identified with the early history of that portion of the State, kept a store for Easton at Milton, on Wood River, about two miles from Alton, in the early " '20's."

EAST ST. LOUIS, a flourishing city in St. Clair County, on the east bank of the Mississippi di- rectly opposite St. Louis; is the terminus of twenty-two railroads and several electric lines, and the leading commercial and manufacturing point in Southern Illinois. Its industries include rolling mills, steel, brass, malleable iron and glass works, grain elevators and flour mills, breweries, stockyards and packing houses. The city has eleven public and five parochial schools, one high school, and two colleges; is well sup- plied with banks and has one daily, three weekly and one monthly papers. Pop. (1900), 29,655; (1910), 58,547.

EASTERN HOSPITAL. FOR THE INSANE. The act for the establishment of this institution passed the General Assembly in 1877. Many cities offered inducements, by way of donations, for the location of the new hospital, but the site finally selected was a farm of 250 acres near Kan- kakee, and this was subsequently enlarged by the purchase of 327 additional acres in 1881. Work was begun in 1878 and the first patients received in December, 1879. The plan of the institution is, in many respects, unique. It comprises a

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general building. three stories high, capable of accommodating 300 to 400 patients, and a number of detached buildings, technically termed cot- tages, where various classes of insane patients may be grouped and receive the particular treatment best adapted to ensure their recovery. The plans were mainly worked out from suggestions by Frederick Howard Wines, LL.D., tlien Secretary of the Board of Public Charities, and have attracted generally favorable comment both in this country and abroad. The seventy-five build- ings occupied for the various purposes of the institution, cover a quarter-section of land laid off in regular streets, beautified with trees, plants and flowers, and presenting all the appearance of a flourishing village with numerous small parks adorned with walks and drives. The counties from which patients are received include Cook, Champaign, Coles, Cumberland, De Witt, Doug- las, Edgar, Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, La Salle, Livingston, Macon, McLean, Moultrie Piatt, Shelby, Vermilion and Will. The whole number of patients in 1898 was 2,200, while the employés of all classes numbered 500.

EASTERN ILLINOIS NORMAL SCHOOL, an institution designed to qualify teachers for giving instruction in the public schools, located at Charleston, Coles County, under an act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1895. The act appropriated $50,000 for the erection of build- ings, to which additional appropriations were added in 1897 and 1898, of $25,000 and $50,000, respectively, with $56,216.72 contributed by the city of Charleston, making a total of $181,216.72. The building was begun in 1896, the corner-stone being laid on May 27 of that year. There was delay in the progress of the work in consequence of the failure of the contractors in December, 1896, but the work was resumed in 1897 and practically completed early in 1899, with the expectation that the institution would be opened for the reception of students in September fol- lowing.

EASTMAN, Zebina, anti-slavery journalist, was born at North Amherst, Mass., Sept. 8, 1815; became a printer's apprentice at 14, but later spent a short time in an academy at Hadley. Then, after a brief experience as an employé in the office of "The Hartford Pearl," at the age of 18 he invested his patrimony of some $2,000 in the establishment of "The Free Press" at Fayette- ville, Vt. This venture proving unsuccessful, in 1837 he came west, stopping a year or two at Ann Arbor, Mich. In 1839 he visited Peoria by way of Chicago, working for a time on "The

Peoria Register," but soon after joined Benjamin Lundy, who was preparing to revive his paper, "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," at Lowell, La Salle County. This scheme was partially defeated by Lundy's early death, but, after a few months' delay, Eastman, in conjunc- tion with Hooper Warren, began the publication of "The Genius of Liberty" as the successor of Lundy's paper, using the printing press which Warren had used in the office of "The Commer- cial Advertiser," in Chicago, a year or so before. In 1842, at the invitation of prominent Abolitionists, the paper was removed to Chicago, where it was issued under the name of "The Western Citizen," in 1853 becoming "The Free West," and finally, in 1856, being merged in "The Chicago Tribune." After the suspension of "The Free West," Mr. Eastman began the publication of "The Chicago Magazine," a literary and historical monthly, but it reached only its fifth number, when it was discontinued for want of financial support. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln United States Consul at Bristol, England, where he remained eight years. On his return from Europe, he took up his residence at Elgin, later removing to Maywood, a suburb of Chicago, where he died, June 14, 1883. During the latter years of his life Mr. Eastman contributed many articles of great historical interest to the Chi- cago press. (See Lundy, Benjamin, and Warren, Hooper.)

EBERHART, John Frederick, educator and real-estate operator, was born in Mercer County, Pa., Jan. 21, 1829; commenced teaching at 16 years of age, and, in 1853, graduated from Alle- gheny College, at Meadville, soon after becoming Principal of Albright Seminary at Berlin, in the same State; in 1855 came west by way of Chicago, locating at Dixon and engaging in editorial work; a year later established "The Northwestern Home and School Journal," which he published three years, in the meantime establishing and conducting teachers' institutes in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1859 lie was elected School Commissioner of Cook County-a position which was afterwards changed to County Superintend- ent of Schools, and which he held ten years. Mr. Eberhart was largely instrumental in the estab- lishment of the Cook County Normal School. Since retiring from office he has been engaged in the real-estate business in Chicago.

ECKHART, Bernard A., manufacturer and President of the Chicago Drainage Board, was born in Alsace, France (now Germany), brought to America in infancy and reared on a farm in

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Vernon County, Wis. ; was educated at Milwau- kee, and, in 1868, became clerk in the office of the Eagle Milling Company of that city, afterwards serving as its Eastern agent in various seaboard cities. He finally established an extensive mill- ing business in Chicago, in which he is now engaged. In 1884 he served as a delegate to the National Waterway Convention at St. Paul and, in 1886, was elected to the State Senate, serving four years and taking a prominent part in draft- ing the Sanitary Drainage Bill passed by the Thirty-sixth General Assembly. He has also been prominent in connection with various financial institutions, and, in 1891, was elected one of the Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago, was re-elected in 1895 and chosen President of the Board for the following year, and re-elected Pres- ident in December, 1898.

EDBROOKE, Willoughby J., Supervising Architect, was born at Deerfield, Lake County, Ill., Sept. 3, 1843; brought up to the architectural profession by his father and under the instruc- tion o Chicago architects. During Mayor Roche's administration he held the position of Commissioner of Public Works, and, in April, 1891, was appointed Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department at Washington, in that capacity supervising the construction of Govern- ment buildings at the World's Columbian Exposi- tion. Died, in Chicago, March 26, 1896.

EDDY, Henry, pioneer lawyer and editor, was born in Vermont, in 1798, reared in New York, learned the printer's trade at Pittsburg, served in the War of 1812, and was wounded in the battle of Black Rock, near Buffalo; came to Shawneetown, Ill., in 1818, where he edited "The Illinois Emigrant," the earliest paper in that part of the State; was a Presidential Elector in 1824, a Representative in the Second and Fif- teenth General Assemblies, and elected a Circuit Judge in 1835, but resigned a few weeks later. He was a Whig in politics. Usher F. Linder, in his "Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois," says of Mr. Eddy: "When he addressed the court, he elicited the most profound attention. He was a sort of walking law library. He never forgot anything that he ever knew, whether law, poetry or belles lettres." Died, June 29, 1849.

EDDY, Thomas Mears, clergyman and author, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, Sept. 7, 1823; educated at Greensborough, Ind., and, from 1842 to 1853, was a Methodist circuit preacher in that State, becoming Agent of the American Bible Society the latter year, and Presiding

Elder of the Indianapolis district until 1856, when he was appointed editor of "The Northwestern Christian Advocate," in Chicago, retiring from that position in 1868. Later, he held pastorates in Baltimore and Washington, and was chosen one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Mis- sionary Society by the General Conference of 1872. Dr. Eddy was a copious writer for the press, and, besides occasional sermons, published two volumes of reminiscences and personal sketches of prominent Illinoisans in the War of the Rebellion under the title of "Patriotism of Illinois" (1865). Died, in New York City, Oct. 7, 1874.

EDGAR, John, early settler at Kaskaskia, was born in Ireland and, during the American Revo- lution, served as an officer in the British navy, but married an American woman of great force of character who sympathized strongly with the patriot cause. Having become involved in the desertion of three British soldiers whom his wife had promised to assist in reaching the American camp, he was compelled to flee. After remaining for a while in the American army, during which he became the friend of General La Fayette, he sought safety by coming west, arriving at Kas- kaskia in 1784. His property was confiscated, but his wife succeeded in saving some $12,000 from the wreck, with which she joined him two years later. He engaged in business and became an extensive land-owner, being credited, during Territorial days, with the ownership of nearly 50,000 acres situated in Randolph, Monroe, St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Washington, Perry and Jackson Counties, and long known as the "Edgar lands." He also purchased and rebuilt a mill near Kaskaskia which had belonged to a French- man named Paget, and became a large shipper of flour at an early day to the Southern markets. When St. Clair County was organized, in 1790, he was appointed one of the Judges of the Common Pleas Court, and so appears to have continued for more than a quarter of a century. On the establishment of a Territorial Legislature for the Northwest Territory, he was chosen, in 1799, one of the members for St. Clair County-the Legis- lature holding its session at Chillicothe, in the present State of Ohio, under the administration of Governor St. Clair. He was also appointed a Major-General of militia, retaining the office for many years. General and Mrs. Edgar were leaders of society at the old Territorial capital, and, on the visit of La Fayette to Kaskaskia in 1825, a reception was given at their house to the distinguished Frenchman, whose acquaintance

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they had made more than forty years before. He died at Kaskaskia, in 1832. Edgar County, in the eastern part of the State, was named in honor of General Edgar. He was Worshipful Master of the first Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Illinois, constituted at Kaskaskia in 1806.

EDGAR COUNTY, one of the middle tier of counties from north to south, lying on the east- ern border of the State; was organized in 1823, and named for General Edgar, an early citizen of Kaskaskia. It contains 640 square miles, with a population (1910) of 27,336. The county is nearly square, well watered and wooded. Most of the acreage is under cultivation, grain-growing and stock-raising being the principal industries. Generally, the soil is black to a considerable depth, though at some points-especially adjoin- ing the timber lands in the east-the soft, brown clay of the subsoil comes to the surface. Beds of the drift period, one hundred feet deep, are found in the northern portion, and some twenty-five years ago a nearly perfect skeleton of a mastodon was exhumed. A bed of limestone, twenty-five feet thick, crops out near Baldwinsville and runs along Brouillet's creek to the State line. Paris, the county-seat, is a railroad center, and has a popu- lation of over 6,000. Vermilion and Dudley are prominent shipping points, while Chrisman, which was an unbroken prairie in 1872, was credited with a population of 900 in 1900.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 29

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