Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume II, Part 8

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Rogers, Thomas H; Moffet, Hugh R; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago : Muncell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 972

USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume II > Part 8

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Dr. Goodhue's first house in Rockford was what was then known as the "ball alley," on the northwest corner of Madison and Walnut streets, where the Golden Censer brick building was subsequently erected. He afterward pur- chased a home on the site of the watch factory ; and the house was moved away when the factory was built. The lot had at one time a pleasant grove, with no fence. Reference is made else- where to the fact that Dr. Goodhue gave to the city of Rockford its name. Four sons and four daughters of his thirteen children, attained adult life. One son, George Washington Good- hue, died of yellow fever, in Mexico, during the war with that country. Another son, William Sewell, died from illness contracted during the Civil war. He had read law with James L. Loop. Dr. Goodhue's oldest daughter was Mrs. C. F. Holland, widow of John A. Holland, and step-mother of H. P. Holland. Mrs. Hoyt Barnum, another daughter, is a resident of Rockford.

THE STORY OF BIG THUNDER.

Dr. Goodhue is said to have taken the skull from the body of Big Thunder, the Indian chief, whose resting-place was on the courthouse mound in Belvidere. Big Thunder was a noted character among the Pottawatomies. His name may have been suggested, according to Indian fashion, by his heavy, rolling voice. His burial place was selected in the highest point of ground. No grave was dug. The chief was wrapped in his blankets, and seated on a rude bench, with his feet resting on an Indian rug. His face was turned toward the west, where he expected a great battle to be fought between his tribe and another. A palisade, made of split white ash logs, from which the bark had been peeled, was placed around his body, and covered with bark. The battle which Big Thunder looked for, never came; and his war- spirit never re-animated his mouldering clay and joined in the victorious whoops of his braves over their vanquished foes. The Indians, as they passed the coop of their fallen chief, would throw tobacco into his lap; and Simon

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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY

P. Doty, an early settler, during a torturing tobacco famine, would systematically purloin the weed from Big Thunder. In those days Belvidere was on the stage route from Chi- cago to Galena; and Big Thunder became the prey of relic hunters. His skull found its way, by Dr. Goodhue, into Rush Medical College, and it was probably destroyed in the great fire of 1871.

Dr. Goodhue's death was the result of an acci- dent, on the night of December 31, 1847. He was called to make a professional visit four miles west on the State road. After caring for his patient, he started for home in the dark- ness and fell into a well, which was then being excavated, and had not been covered or enclosed, and survived only a short time after he was taken from the well. His death was deplored by the entire community. He was a positive character ; nature had liberally endowed him in qualities of mind and heart. Dr. Goodhue was an attendant at the Unitarian church. Mrs. Goodhue was an Episcopalian. She died October 14, 1873. A son of Dr. Goodhue died November 14, 1SSO.

Dr. Alden Thomas was born at Woodstock, Vermont, November 11, 1797, and was a lineal descendant from John Alden. He was married to Elizabeth Marsh, a sister of Colonel Jason Marsh, June 15, 1824. In the autumn of 1839, the family came to Rockford. In the following spring Dr. Thomas built a house opposite the courthouse. He practiced medicine about five or six years, and then removed to a farm two miles south on the Kishwaukee road, where he lived about two years. The family then re- turned to the village. He opened a drug store soon after his return from the farm, and con- tinued in this business until a short time before his death. Dr. Thomas was a member of the First Congregational church, and played the bass viol there for some time. A book of music, with words and notes copied by him in a clear, beautiful hand, has been preserved.

Dr. Thomas' children were: Mrs. W. A. Dickerman, E. P. Thomas, Mrs. S. J. Caswell, F. A. Thomas and Mrs. Evans Blake. Henry, the youngest son, enlisted in the army during the Civil war, and was drowned while return- ing on a furlough. Dr. Thomas' death occurred March 21, 1856. E. P. Thomas is the only sur- viving child.

Dr. A. M. Catlin emigrated to Illinois from

the Western Reserve, in Ohio, in February, 1838, in company with the Rev. Hiram Foote and Silas Tyler. This party traveled the entire dis- tance in wagons. They were of New England stock, and were part of a movement to found an institution of learning similar to the one then flourishing at Oberlin, Ohio. The brothers, Hiram, Lucius and Horatio Foote, all clergy- men, were prominent in this movement. They were more or less influenced by the example of the Rev. Charles G. Finney, the famous revival- ist and founder of the Oberlin institution. Ira Baker, Rev. Lewis Sweasy, James S. Morton, a Mr. Field, and others moved from the Western Reserve to Rockford about the same time, and under the same influences. Upon their arrival in Rockford, the only hotel to be found was a double log cabin, and the only bed discovered by Doctor Catlin for himself and boy was a thinly covered, dislocated and dislocating stra- tum of oak shakes, supported at the sides by the naked logs-a Spartan bed for a cold night. Horace, a fourth brother of the Footes, had pre- ceded the others by a year, and secured a log cabin on Rock River, about two miles above Rockford. Into this single room, with a small loft, were crowded three families, with several children. At that time Dr. Catlin intended to abandon the practice of medicine. To feed his little family, he hired a broken prairie of Her- man B. Potter, who lived two miles south of Rockford. This land, six miles from home, the Doctor cultivated under difficulties, for it soon became known to the scattered people that he was a physician, and, like Cincinnatus, he was called from the plow. He was not a man to deny the necessities of others; and against his wishes at the time, he was drawn into the prac- tice of his profession, which he continued until near the day of his death, nearly sixty years later. He had practiced in early life in New York and Ohio, and his entire pro- fessional service lasted seventy years. He died in 1892, at the age of ninety-one. Dr. Cat- lin settled in Rockford about 1839, and en- tered upon a medical practice which, if not large, was very "wide," as it carried him from Roscoe and above on the north, to Stillman's Run on the south, and from Twelve-Mile Grove and beyond to Belvidere. Much of this was night riding. After the settlers' horses had done their day's work, and after the fall of darkness, in the silence of the night, when

Margaret Agnew

Henry Agnew-

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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY

watchers became nervous, in the midst of storms and when the primitive household lights burned pale, was the accepted time to send for the medical comforter; and the nocturnal "Hollo, Doctor !" was often heard above the storm at the physician's door. He was never ill, and never refused to answer the call. Even when his own horse failed, he was mounted behind the messenger, and rode out in the night to re- lieve the sick. Once he was persuaded to mount the back of a sturdy messenger, who bore him and his precious medicine-bag through the swellings of icy Kishwaukee.

The year 1846 was signalized by much sick- ness. Nearly every family living on low land had malarial fever, and the doctors were busy people. At one time Dr. Catlin could get but four or five hours' sleep out of the. twenty-four, and he would become so exhausted that he fre- quently slept while riding from house to house. One day's ride, for example, included a trip of several miles north of Rockford, and then a tour south beyond the Killbuck, and a return by Cherry Valley, closing the day's work in the following morning. Thirty calls were made, and sixty patients prescribed for on that occa- sion. During this season Dr. Goodhue was asked what could be done for the sick. To this grave question the Doctor made this character- istic reply : "I don't know unless we build a big smoke-house and cure them," referring to the almost universal pallor. Dr. Catlin was an indulgent creditor, and fully shared the burden and poverty of early days.

PROPOSED SITE OF COLLEGE.

The missionary educational managers had se- lected the mouth of the Kishwaukee as the site of their institution, A large building was begun, but never completed, and the useless frame sur- vived for years as evidence of the untimeliness of their effort. An Indian wigwam still survived on the same site. The Indians, after their bloody victory over the indiscreet militia at Stillman's Run, had abandoned the region, and the military expedition, which included Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, had been with- drawn. Silver brooches, arrow heads and the like were found beside the deep, narrow Indian trails that wound about the bluffs and across the prairies. Kishwaukee, however, soon had about forty frame dwellings, and Dr. Catlin,

Mr. Tyler, Mr. Field, Mr. Johnson and others resided there.

Although Rockford was from the first clearly indicated as the coming metropolis, by the ford which gave its name, yet Kishwaukee below and Winnebago above were "boomed." In those days they could compare population with Rock- ford.

STEAMBOAT GIPSY AT ROCKFORD.

On the morning of April 16, 1838, Dr. Haskell and family, Mowry Brown and wife, Samuel Haskell, H. H. Silsby, Isaiah Lyon, Caleb Blood and William Hull boarded the steamboat Gipsy at Alton, Illinois. The destination of this party was Rockford. The river was high, the bottom lands werc overflowed, and the boat sometimes left the channel of the Mississippi and ran across points of land, and once went through a grove of timber. When the Gipsy arrived at Rock Island and ran alongside the wharf-boat, a strong wind from the east turned the bow out into the stream. As the boat turned, the rudder struck the wharf-boat, and broke the tiller ropes. This accident rendered the boat unmanageable, and it was blown across the river to Davenport, Iowa, While at Rock Island Dr. Haskell contracted with the captain that upon his return from Galena he would steam up Rock River to Rockford. At Savanna, Sam- uel Haskell, William Hull and H. H. Silsby left the Gipsy. They had come to the conclusion that the boat would never reach Rockford; and in company with Moses Wallen, of Winnebago village, where the county seat had been located by the special commissioners, they started afoot for Rockford. They stopped over night at Cherry Grove, and the next morning they trav- eled to Crane's Grove, on the stage route from Dixon to Galena. There they hired a coach and team, which brought them that evening to Loomis' Hotel.

Mr. Silsby writes that a few days after his arrival he arose one morning as soon as it was light, to see if he could discover any sign of the Gipsy. He was rewarded by the sight of dense, black smoke, near Corey's bluff, which seemed to be moving up the river. Soon the Gipsy came in sight, and the people gathered on the banks of the river and cheered the boat as it ascended in fine style until nearly over the rapids, when it suddenly turned. swung around,

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and went down stream much faster than it ascended. It rounded to and tried it again, and soon turned down stream a second time. After several attempts, with the aid of a quan- tity of lard thrown into the furnaces, the boat ran up the swift current, and soon tied up to the bank in front of Platt & Sanford's store, which stood near the water's edge, in the rear of the site of the Stewart block. The Gipsy was the first steamer that visited Rockford. It was a stern-wheeler, not less than one hundred feet in lengthi, and perhaps thirty in width. It had a cabin above the hold, and an upper deck, open and uncovered. There were several staterooms. G. A. Sanford and John Platt had come to Rockford the preceding year, and had formed a partnership in conducting the first store on the West side. Mr. Sanford sold his interest to Dr. Haskell. The following year Mr. Platt re- tired and Dr. Haskell became sole owner. When the Gipsy arrived the Doctor's eleven tons of merchandise were removed from the boat to the store, A merchant at Beloit had shipped ten tons from Rock Island to Beloit, which were to be delivered at that point. The people came in from the country, and chartered the boat for an excursion up the river, and carried passen- gers. The captain said he never witnessed such a scene before. They danced all night, and kept the cabin in an uproar day and night until they reached Rockton.

Dr. Geo. Haskell was a native of Massachu- setts. He was born at Harvard, March 23, 1799. His father, Samuel Haskell, removed to Water- ford, Maine, in 1803. In 1821 the son went to Phillips Exeter Academy, and entered Dartmouth College in 1823. He left his college class in his sophomore year, and studied medicine until 1827, when he received the degree of M. D. from the college. While in college, he taught one term of district school in East Haverhill. One of his pupils was Jolin G. Whittier; and the schoolmaster in Whittier's "Snow-Bound" was his former teacher. On page 34 of Samuel T. Pickard's "Life and Letters of Whittier," is found this allusion to the hero of this poem : "Until near the end of Mr. Whittier's life, he could not recall the name of this teacher whose portrait is so carefully sketched, but he was sure he came from Maine. At length, he remembered that the name was Haskell, and from this clue it has been ascertained that he was George Haskell, and that he canle from Waterford,

Maine." Dr. Haskell never appeared to have been aware of the fact that his gifted Haverhill pupil had immortalized him in "Snow-Bound." Dr. Haskell also received this tribute as a teacher from his illustrious pupil, as given in a later chapter of Mr. Pickard's biography: "He [Whittier] was accustomed to say that only two of the teachers who were employed in that dis- trict during his school days were fit for the not very exacting position they occupied. Both of these were Dartmouth students: one of them George Haskell, to whom reference has already been made." Dr. Haskell began the practice of medicine at East Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1827, and removed to Ashby, in the same state, in the following year,

Dr. Haskell came to Illinois in 1831, and set- tled at Edwardsville, and two years later he removed to Upper Alton. While there he be- came one of the founders of Shurtleff College, of which he was trustee and treasurer. The Doctor built up a large practice, which he soon abandoned. On November 7, 1837, Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy was murdered at Alton, for his bold utterances in behalf of an oppressed race. Dr. Haskell entertained radical anti-slavery views, and he determined to leave that portion of the state in which the pro-slavery sentiment was largely predominant. From the time of his arrival in Rockford until his removal from the city about twenty-eight years later, Dr. Haskell was a broad-minded, representative man of af- fairs. He conducted for a short time a mercan- tile business on the river bank, as the successor of Platt & Sanford, but his ruling passion was horticulture. He entered from the government quite a tract of land lying north of North street, and built the house on North Main street occu- pied for many years by George R. Forbes. He planted a nursery and became an expert in raising fruit. It is said that one year he raised 60 bushels of peaches. The severe winter of 1855-56 killed his trees, and from that time he devoted his attention to more hardy fruits. His later Rockford home was on North Court street, near the residence built by Hon. Andrew Aslı- ton. Dr. Haskell was generous and public- spirited. He and his brother-in-law, John Ed- wards, presented to the city the West side public square, which was named Haskell park, in honor of the former. A street, called Edwards place, forms the southern boundary of the park.

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A ward schoolhouse in West Rockford also bears Dr. Haskell's name.

In 1853 Dr. Haskell became a convert to Spir- itualism, and his long and honored membership with the First Baptist church ceased on the last day of that year. Mrs. Haskell followed her husband, and withdrew from the church May 6, 1854. Dr. Haskell entered upon his new religious life with that energy and enthu- siasm which had signalized his former adher- ence to Baptist doctrine. On April 15, 1854, he began the publication of the Spirit Advocate, an eight-page mouthily. The paper was an able propagandist of the new faith and twenty-three numbers were published. In the issue of March 15, 1856, the editor announced that the pub- lication of the Advocate would be discontinued, and that it would be consolidated with the Orient, under the name of the Orient and Ad- vocate, with headquarters at Waukegan,

In 1866, Dr. Haskell removed to New Jersey. There he was engaged in founding an indus- trial school, and purchased with others a tract of four thousand acres, which was laid out for a model community. In 1857 Dartmouth Col- lege gave him the degree of A. B., as of the year 1827. Dr. Haskell died at Vineland, N. J., August 23, 1876. The late George S. Haskell, widely known as a seedsman, was a son; and Mrs. Henry P. Kimball was a daughter. Dr. Frank H., Willis M. and Carl Kimball are grandsons. His nephew, Rev. Samuel Haskell, pays him this tribute in Pickard's work, pre- viously noted : "He was a man of scholarship and enthusiasm, a friend of struggling students, many of whom he befriended in his home and with his means."

EARLY BUILDING ACTIVITIES.

In the spring and summer of 1838 Harvey H. Silsby, Mowry Brown, William Hull and Wil- liam Harvey built a house on North Main street for Dr. Haskell, who afterward sold it to John Edwards. It now forms a part of the club house owned by the Knights of Columbus. In the autumn was erected by Dr. Haskell the brick building which was known later as the Winnebago House, on the Ashton corner. When laying out the ground for the cellar Mr. Silsby persuaded Dr. Haskell to set his building 6 feet from the line of the street. The Winnebago House was the first brick store built above Rock

Island on Rock River. Into this store Dr. Has- kell moved the stock of goods from the building on the river bank which had been occupied by Platt & Sanford ; and he and Isaiah Lyon con- tinued the business. In 1843 Mr. Lyon closed out the stock, and converted the building into a hotel, under the name of the Winnebago House. Mr. Lyon's successors as proprietor were: N. Crawford, C. C. Cobern, P. C. Watson, James B. Pierce, Isaac N. Cunningham, and D. Sholts. The building passed into Mr. Scaton's hands in 1854, and was afterward rearranged into stores. After finishing Dr. Haskell's brick block, Mr. Silsby and Mowry Brown built a house for G. A. Sanford near the center of the block, south of Porter's drug store, on Main street. Benjamin Kilburn built his house near the Trask bridge road that season. The rear of the Beattie house was built the same summer. In September, 1839, Mr. Silsby and Phineas Howes entered into a contract to build a trestle bridge over the Kishwaukee River at Newburg, once called Sayresville, after its founder, Colonel Sayres. Newburg was then in Winnebago County, on the mile-strip, The bridge was built of heavy timbers framed together, and floor timbers laid from one bent to another to support the floor. This bridge extended several hundred feet south of the river across a marsh to solid ground. Thirty-two years later Mr. Silsby crossed this bridge with a loaded wagon. Mr. Silsby knew the village from the beginning, and he retained his excellent memory unimpaired to the last and rendered great service to the writer in locating buildings of the early days. He died suddenly, April 7. 1899, in Kansas, after having spent the winter with his daughter in Rockford, aged eighty-one years. He was born at Acworth, N. H., November 1, 1817. He went in 1837 to Upper Alton, where he remained until he came to Rockford. After working at his trade for some years, he embarked in mercantile business. Mr. Silsby was survived by two daughters, Mrs. Harriet Griswold and Mrs. Levi Sanders. George A. Silsby, of Mitchell, S. D., formerly in the shoe business in Rockford, is a son.

PIONEERS OF 1838-1839.

James Madison Wight was born at Norwich, Mass., in 1810, was admitted to the bar of Queens County, N. Y., in 1837, and immedi- ately afterward came west. He first joined his

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brother, J. Ambrose Wight, in Rockton, but he found no field in that village for the prac- tice of his profession and came in 1838 to Rock- ford. In his early life he served a few terms as city attorney of Rockford. He was for many years local attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and for other corpora- tions, and was also for a time a member of the state legislature, and served on the judi- ciary committee. Mr. Wight was a member of the constitutional convention of 1870, called to draft a new constitution for submission to the voters of the state. To Mr. Wight, law was not merely a profession, it was an absorbing and delightful study. He was above all a student, a perfect cyclopedia of general information, fa- miliar with the literature of many languages, which he read in the original, and a passionate lover of classical music and art. He was a cousin of George Bancroft, the famous historian. He died in Rockford in 1877, leaving to his chil- dren the heritage of an honest name, and the memory of a modest, blameless and tender life. Mr. Wight was the father of Mrs. Harriott Wight Sherratt, Miss Mary Wight, and Miss Carrie, who died in 1891. The Wight school was named in his honor.

Jason Marsh was born at Woodstock, Vt., in 1807. At the age of sixteen lie removed to Saratoga, N. Y .; in 1831 was admitted to the bar in Jefferson County, where he first prac- ticed. In 1832 he married Harriet M. Spafford, a sister of Charles, John and Catlin Spafford. Mr. Marsh came to Rockford in 1839, accom- panied by his wife and children, a brother and wife, and his three brothers-in-law. Soon after his arrival he and the three Spafford brothers built the brick house three miles south of State street, on the Kishwaukee road, later occupied by F. J. Morey. A large farm was attached. Mr. Marsh drove daily to the vil- lage, where he practiced his profession. His later home was the residence subsequently owned by the late W. W. Fairfield, on East State street. These beautiful grounds are now subdivided. In 1862 Mr. Marsh entered military service, in the Civil war, as colonel of the Seventy-fourth Illinois Infantry. He was severely wounded at the battle of Mission- ary Ridge in the autumn of 1863, and re- turned home. Two months later he again went to the front. In the campaign from Chatta- nooga to Atlanta his old wound troubled him

and he resigned. Colonel Marsh was a man of fine presence, rather above medium height and portly. Colonel, or 'Squire Marsh, as he was often called, was a gentleman of striking char- acteristics. He preserved the courtliness of the old-school gentleman. His social nature was of a generous kind. He was at home either in long-continued argument, or he could adapt him- self to the lighter conversation of gallant and graceful nothings of fashionable society. His habitual attire combined the present and the past with striking effect. His blue swallow-tail coat, buff vest and gold-lieaded cane are inti- mately associated with his sturdy personality in the minds of all who remember him. Colonel Marsh was a man of well-stored mind, and made his mark as a lawyer at an early day. His last years were spent on his farm near Durand. His death occurred at the home of his daugh- fer in Chicago, March 13, 1881. He was buried in Rockford with military honors. His sur- viving children were : Mrs. E. H. Baker, Mrs. William Ruger, Cerdric G., and Ogden C., who died soon after his father. J. M. and Volney Southgate and E. P. Thomas were nephews.

Francis Burnap was born at Merrimac, N. H., January 4, 1796. He belonged to one of the old historic families of New England. His mother was a sister of Major-General Brooks, of Rer- olutionary fame, who was afterward governor of Massachusetts for seven terms. His father was Rev. Jacob Burnap, who for fifty years was pastor of the First Congregational church of Merrimac. Mr. Burnap settled in Rockford in August, 1839, and began the practice of law in Winnebago and neighboring counties, in the state Supreme court, and in the federal courts. His industry and patient persistence in his pro- fession were proverbial. He loved chancery practice, and in the knowledge of this depart- mient he had few equals in the state. While he was affable in manner, lie was firm in his principles, even to sternness. The tenacity with which he clung to his opinions, and earnestly defended them, sometimes excited enmity. He practiced his profession until 1864, when ill liealth compelled him to retire. Mr. Burnap died in Rockford December 2, 1866. He was the senior practitioner of the Rockford bar, which adopted resolutions of respect at his death, and attended his funeral in a body. Mr. Burnap never married.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume II, Part 8

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Rogers, Thomas H; Moffet, Hugh R; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago : Muncell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 972

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Rogers, Thomas H; Moffet, Hugh R; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago : Muncell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 972