USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > History of DeKalb County, Illinois > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
349
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-THREE AND FOUR.
The battle of Stillman's Run, in which an advanced and too ambitious portion of our army organized to drive out Black Hawk's forces, were defeated and driven back, occurred in this summer, as elsewhere related, near the north-western portion of this County, and the entire army of volunteers returning for re-organization to Ottawa, passed through Pawpaw Grove and, encamped there.
1833.
In the autumn of this year, some hunters from Ottawa or that region which was one of the earliest settled points of the country, report having penetrated into the southern portion of the County in pursuit of game. They found the Indians still sore over their defeat, and still sufficiently numerous and irritable to cause their yarty to make a speedy evacuation of the country.
1834.
In the spring and summer of this year, we have accounts of exploring expeditions into this section of the country, by three or four individuals. Among them was Frederic Love, who subsequently became a leading citizen, and a Mr. Hol- lenback, from near Ottawa. Love soon returned to his temporary home upon the Fox River, and did not move'to this place until a year or two later. Hollenback, who had been driven from his home near Newark during the Indian war, came north through Newark, Somonauk, and Lost Grove, as far as the " Big Woods " in Sycamore, and on his return, made a claim in settlers' fashion, to a portion of the fine grove since known as Squaw Grove, and to which he gave that name, because of the large numbers of Squaws that were encamped there, the male Indians being off on a hunting expedition. A mail route from Chicago to John Dixon's residence on the Rock River was this year established, which crossed the southern end of the County ; and during the summer, a log hut was built for a station house on this line at the crossing of Somonauk Creek. This was probably the first habitation
350
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY.
of a white man, erected in the County. Whoever it was that first inhabited it, he abandoned it in the autumn, for when Mr. William Sebree, who had been charmed by the description that Hollenback had given of the attractions of this section of country moved in from the South and settled at Squaw Grove in the fall, this cabin stood vacant. A short time after, it was occupied by a Mr. Robinson, who occupied it a few months, then sold to Mr. Reuben Root who kept a tavern in it, during the following year. It subsequently became, and still remains the property of the Beveridge family.
Mr. Sebree seems to have been the first settler who became a permanent resident of the County. He was a Virginian, brought a large family with him, and a considerable drove of stock. Ile lived for a few days in a deserted Indian wigwam, then, with crotches for a frame, and the bark of which a number of these wigwams were composed for a covering, he built a shelter, slightly more convenient, in which he lived a few weeks ; then, as winter came on, put up a solid, substan- tial double-log cabin, which remained the home of a numerous family, and a stopping place for travellers for nearly twenty years.
1835.
It was in the spring of this year when the treaty with the Indians which followed the Black Hawk war had bound them to leave this country for the wilderness beyond the great Father of Waters, that the first considerable body of white settlers came into the County. So soon in the early spring- time as the groves began to put out their leaves, and the emerald grass of the beautiful prairies afforded food for the travellers' teams, the gleam of the white-topped wagon of the early settler might have been seen moving over the prairie to hesitate, stop, and finally encamp near some grove, spring or stream, that seemed to afford the requisites and advantages of a good claim. The wagon was generally propelled by three or four yoke of oxen, and canopied with white cotton. It contained the family clothing, bedding, and provisions. It
351
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FIVE.
was garnished on its exterior, with pots, pans, pails, and other cooking utensils ; generally, also, by a coop of chickens and a diminutive pig or two : and it was usually followed by a small drove of colts, cows, sheep, calves, and other young stock. Early settlers say that it was not uncommon in those days for the careful mistress of the wagon to milk the cows in the morning, place the milk where the motion of the wagon would churn it during the day, and thus keep up a supply of fresh butter ; while the poultry in the coops did not refuse to contribute a supply of eggs, which with other substantials from the wagon, enabled the emigrant's wife to " scare up " a pretty good meal at short notice. Each night they camped, made a fire, partook of the evening meal and then retired into the recesses of the wagon to sleep the sleep of health, of hope and innocence.
Hundreds of such wagons passed into DeKalb county in the early months of this year, and many went beyond its boundaries, to the Rock River country, which was first set- tled during this year. Among the occupants of one of these was Ambrose Spencer, Esq., who, after thirty years of eventful life in various sections of the country, has now returned to take up his residence on the identical spot in the thriving village of DeKalb, where thirty-three years ago he pitched his tent, in what was then a complete solitude.
The first work of the new comer, after having selected a spot of land that suited him, was to stake out, or with a plow to furrow around, as much of the prairie as he wanted, and to " blaze" the trees in a line surrounding a sufficient quan- tity of timbered lands. These processes gave him what was called a squatters claim to the land that he thus enclosed, and his claim, if not too unreasonably extensive, was regarded as sacred by all who came after him. His next work was usually to construct a dwelling of some kind. Some commenced at once to build good solid substantial dwellings of logs, notched at the ends and laid up thoroughly and durably ; finished with a roof of shakes or split staves, and made convenient
352
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FIVE.
with a window and door. But to many of the new comers, hurried with the imperatively necessary duties of breaking up the land and planting a crop for future subsistence, this was thought to involve too much labor ; such houses were a little extravagant. Many of the homes in which settlers, now wealthy, spent the first months of their residence here were built entirely of shakes and saplings.
A tall straight oak was felled, cut into four or five foot lengths, then split in broad thin sections, and when a cord or two of these was prepared and a few crotches and poles were cut, the material was all ready. Four crotches were set in the ground, poles laid across, shakes laid up perpendicularly against these poles and fastened with withes, enclosing a space about eight by twelve fcet. Then a roof of these shakes was laid on and made secure by the weight of heavy poles or boulders from the prairie. One end was of tenleft open for an entrance, and the shanty, although without floor, door or window, was complete. A person could stand erect in the middle but not at the sides. It furnished little more ยท space than was necessary for the bed and family valuables : the cooking was done out of doors.
The new comers were generally young ardent and hopeful. Most of them had been accustomed to the comforts, and in- deed, to the luxuries of life. The founders of a new settle- ment, they looked forward with eagerness to the time, when their fertile acres should be transformed into finished and well stocked farms, their wretched shanties and log stables, . into elegant dwellings and spacious barns. They regarded their present comfortless habitations, with that peculiar pleas- ure which every person feels for work that his own hands have made, and hopeful for the future, they looked upon their present discomforts with that cheerful indifference that robs trouble of its sting, and wards off the annoyances of the present with a panoply of confident hopes for the future.
It was in the summer of this year, that the new settlers, now become comparatively numerous, felt the want of some
353
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FIVE.
kind of courts and civil officers. It is true that as a general rule, the best of good feeling prevailed among them. Every- body regarded everybody else with a friendliness, and each treated the other with a degree of kindness and good fellow- ship that old settlers now recall with warmest satisfaction. The troubles of one were shared by all his neighbors, and every mans necessities were supplied with a generosity and unsel- fishness that is now remembered almost with tears of gratitude. But there were some black sheep in the flock. It was plain that they could not always live in this style of Arcadian sim- plicity.
This section of country was then known as the Kishwaukee country, and was a part of the great county of LaSalle, which extended from the Illinois river on the south, to the line of Wisconsin territory on the north, and on the east to Cook county. A commission was procured from Ottawa, then as now, its county seat, for the election of two Justices of the peace, and in June of this year an election was held. Stephen Mowry and Joseph Collier were chosen Justices, the first public officers ever elected in this section of country. It is well remembered that the terrors of the law to be admin- istered by these formidable courts induced a very prompt and satisfactory settlement of many little debts that had been in- curred by some of the new comers. There were not many suits commenced, but there was a general liquidation of ac- counts, and that instanter.
But the most troublesome and weighty controversies that vexed the souls of the Squatters upon these new lands, were the disputes about the boundaries of claims and the rights of claimants. How much land might a man claim ? Might he make a claim for himself; another for his brother ; a third for his maiden aunt, and so through his family ? Might he sell his claim ? Must he reside upon it in order to hold it ?
These and like questions, threatened to make serious trouble, and to avert threatened conflict upon these questions, a meeting of settlers was held on the 5th of September, at
45
354
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY.
the shanty of Harmon Miller upon the east bank of the Kish- waukee or Sycamore river, at which a Claim Association was organized to decide such disputed questions as should arise, and a constitution was drawn up and signed by most of the settlers, in which all agreed to abide by the decision of the five Commissioners then selected, and to aid in enforcing their decisions.
Another means of keeping peace and promoting tranquil- ity was the establishment of religious services. In the autumn of this year almost before the new comers had got a roof over their heads ; before the Indians had removed; before the first semblance of civil government had been established ; the devoted missionaries of the Methodist Church made their way into the country, gathered together little audiences of eight or ten, wherever in grove, hut or shanty, they could be found, preached, prayed, sang hymns, and exhorted the new comers to found a community of christian people, and amid the pressing cares of this, not to forget to prepare for another -an immortal life. Rev. Leander Walker, now an eminent clergyman of the Methodist denomination, was probably the pioneer preacher of DeKalb county.
As winter approached and the discomforts of their new houses became less endurable, large numbers of the new comers seeing no especial necessity for remaining, moved back to more comfortable residences on the Fox river, to Joliet or whatever places might have been their former homes.
Of those who remained and spent this winter at the north part of the county, were Dr. Norbo, a Norwegian, after whom Norwegian Grove was named, and who made some pretense of being a physician, Mr. Charters, a Frenchman, who gave name to Charters Grove, Dr. Lee, who first claimed the farm since occupied by Ephraim Hall; Rufus Colton, Lyman Judd, Eli Barns, Phineas Stevens, Alpheus Jenks, Shubael Jenks, James Root, Levi C. Barber, James Peaslee, Norman C. Moore, Stephen Sherwood, W. A. Miller, Henry Madden,
355
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FIVE.
Peter Lamois, Lysander Darling, Robert Robb, Isaiah Fair- clo, Harmon Miller, James Green, Nathan Billings, Lewis Griggs, Benj. Schoonover, John, Frail and Morris, Erasmus and George Walrod. At Squaw Grove were William Sebree and sons, Samuel Miller, Jacob Lee, John Esterbrooks and David Leggett. At Somonauk were David and William Sly, Reuben Root and Dr. Arnold.
Late in the autumn of this year Mr. Edwin Town and his brother David Town, established themselves at Shabbonas Grove, lived for a few weeks in the deserted wigwams of the Indians, and on the first day of January 1836, raised the first log cabin and became the first white settlers of Shabbona's Grove. Peter Lamois, who, with Jesse C. Kellogg and Lysander Darling were among the first settlers of what is now the town of Sycamore, remained to spend the winter in Kellogg's cabin. Peter was a shrewd, speculating, half-yan- keefied Frenchman, and had with him, as companion and help, a half-civilized Indian lad called Shaw-ne-neese. It occurred to him, that with the help of the boy, who had re- lations living near what is now Aurora, and of course spoke the language of the Indians around, a good trade could be established with the straggling Indians who still remained in the sale of whisky. So off goes Peter with his oxen and wagon, and soon returned with a barrel of whisky, which was duly broached and advertised among the Indians in all the country round. Little money had the poor Indians, but they had ponies and blankets, and trinkets to sell, so that a flourishing trade was speedily established ; the Indians promising to deliver ponies when they had received the equivalent in whisky. The whisky went off rapidly, yet so convenient was the spring to Peter's shanty, that the quantity in the barrel was not seriously diminished ; he filled water at the bung as freely as he drew good ne tosh from the spigot. Soon Peter's best customers had each become indebted to him in the sum of a pony or two, and he began to hint that it was time to settle. Peter unfortunately, broached the subject
356
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
at a time when a party of them were present, all well warmed up with good ne tosh. The Indians held an indignation meeting, at once and on the spot. They put in a plea of failure of consideration-the good ne tosh that Peter had sold them was no good-he had cheated them-had sold bad liquor. Peter attempted to explain, but the thing could not be explained. They grew madder and madder. Shaw-ne-neese and Peter each fell under their indignation. Soon an old Indian snatched up Shaw-ne-neese upon the pony behind him and galloped off. Then a real old fashioned Indian war-whoop burst from the drunken group, and drawing their knives, they rushed upon the first original liquor-dealer of DeKalb County, like so many fiends from the pit.
Peter had a good pair of legs, and he used them. He made tracks for the brush, and was fortunate enough to hide from their search, until tiring of the chase, they went back to the shanty, absorbed the remainder of the whisky, appropriated Peter's little stock of clothing, provisions, and cooking utensils, and than left the premises. When darkness came, the friendly voice of Shaw-ne-neese, calling cautiously through the brush, delighted the ears of the discomfitted Peter, and working together, they got the oxen yoked, loaded up what little remained of their wordly goods, and made tracks for Walker's Grove, the settlement from which they came. So it happened that the first white man's house in Sycamore was a whisky shop, the first settler a rum-seller, and the first row a whisky riot.
In September of this year the Indians were removed west of the Mississippi, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty made at Prairie du Chien 1832, at the close of the Black Hawk war. They were gathered together at Pawpaw Grove, by a government contractor named Rogers. They there re- ceived a large payment from the government, then sorrowfully loaded their property upon their ponies and left for their new homes farther toward the setting sun.
Some white men of Sycamore who went to the rendezvous
357
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-SIX.
at Pawpaw Grove to get by gambling, the glittering coin paid the Indians, were successful in that object but were set upon by those whom they had cheated and narrowly escaped with their lives. Straggling bands of Indians travel through the country even to this day, but this was the end of Indian occupation of the country.
1836.
For many reasons the year 1836 could hardly be reckoned as a bright one in the annals of this section of country. Comparatively few. settlers came in ; the timbered lands of the county had nearly all been claimed during the previous year, and those who were not able or willing to pay the prices demanded by claimants were forced to go further to the west. Although the changes of ownership were many, yet the ad- ditions to the number of the population were few as compar- ed with the previous twelve months. Provisions also grew more scarce. The supplies of flour, sugar, salt and other articles, now reckoned as the necessaries of life, which the new comers had brought with them, had been consumed.
Hurried by the arduous and constant labors incident to making comfortable homes and planting their first crops, they found no time to go to distant markets to renew their supplies, and, indeed, most of the new comers had exhausted their stock of ready money, and had as yet raised nothing with which to exchange for, or purchase these commodities. They had little or no wheat. The corn raised the previous year alone furnished them with bread, and as Green's mills, near Ottawa, fifty miles distant furnished the nearest oppor- tunity for grinding, many of the settlers pounded their corn with pestle and mortar, rather than go so far to convert it into meal.
Their clothing was also in a most dilapidated condition ; but worse than all, it was a year of sickness. Most of the settlers had built upon or near the banks of the streams, and in the shelter of the groves. The decaying sod of the newly broken prairie, which surrounded their dwellings, filled the
358
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
air with malaria. From the streams, whose sluggishness was a main characteristic of this level country, there also arose a constant and palpable effluvium that was a fruitful source of disease. The ague, that curse of new lands in the fertile west, this year became the prevalent complaint.
Poverty, rags, a scanty diet and the shakes were the fashion of the times.
At a general election held in August of this year, Henry Madden, a well known citizen of intelligence, education and shrewdness, who resided in what is called the Brush Point settlement in the present town of Mayfield, was elected as Representative to the State Legislature. His district was immense in extent if not in population. Most of the popu- lation of the State at this time was in its southern portion. Excepting the old French settlements at Ottawa, LaSalle, Joliet, and the mining town at Galena, there were no large towns in northern Illinois. Chicago then consisting only of a few log houses, clustered around Fort Dearborn upon the banks of the sluggish Chicago river, was indeed now making some boastful promises of future commercial importance, but they were ridiculed by the incoming settlers ; who hurried through the wretched little hamlet of mud and misery to take up lands more pleasant to look upon, on the banks of the Rock, the Fox, or the Kishwaukee rivers, while they might have obtained at the same low rate, those portions of Chicago which tens of millions could not now purchase.
When Benjamin Worden came through the place during autumn, and Mark Beaubien, the French trader who kept the hotel then, offered to trade him his own claim to eighty acres of land near the present Court House, for a pair of French ponies that Worden had just before purchased while coming through Michigan, for $130, uncle Ben laughed at the idea, and told him that he wouldn't take the whole town as a gift if he should be required to live in it.
The whole of northern Illinois was still very thinly settled, and Mr. Madden's district extended from what is now Iroquois
359
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-SIX.
County on the south, to the Wisconsin line upon the north, embracing land enough to make a half dozen respectable States-land which was fertile and productive, enough to support a population of millions. The County of Kane had been created during the previous session of the Legislature. It was thirty-six miles square, embracing the present County of DeKalb, and part of Kendall. But the people of this western portion of Kane County, found that Geneva, then as now, the County-seat, was too far from their settlement. The difficulties of travelling were much greater than at present. The country was much more wet, the streams and sloughis the great obstructions to prairie travel, were more full of water than now. It was a long day's journey to Geneva, and to go thiat distance to try suits, record deeds, and examine titles, was too severe a tax upon their resources, of time and money. But the more powerful inducement for the erection of a new County in this district was, that several embryo villages about this region, were ambitious of acquiring the added glories of being made the seat of justice for the new County, and the people of each, confident that it would be selected, worked zealously to secure as a necessary preliminary, although a matter of secondary importance to them, the erection of a new County. Having within their borders the home of the Representative for this district, they felt that this was the time to strike for independence.
The creation of new Counties was then a principal item of business of the State Legislature, and so soon as Mr. Madden, after a weary horse-back ride of two hundred and fifty miles across the country, reached Vandalia, then the Capital of the State, he speedily set himself to introduce and secure the passage of, a bill for the creation of a new County, and the location of a County-seat. IIe was stimulated to zeal in this work, by the fact that his own farm at Brush Point, now in the township of Mayfield, was rather favorably and cen- trally situated in the proposed new County, and he hoped,
360
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
planned, and expected, to secure upon it the location of the seat of justice.
1837.
On the 4th day of March, 1837, the act for the creation of the County of DeKalb was passed, and in the same bill the Counties of Stephenson, Winnebago, and Boone were created if this should be sanctioned by the whole body of voters in the respective Counties from which they were detached. The whole act, although containing some irrelevant matter, is here given :
"AN ACT TO CREATE CERTAIN COUNTIES TIIEREIN NAMED.
" SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That all that tract of country within the following boundaries, to wit : com- mencing on the northern boundary of the state where the section line between sections three and four, in town twenty- nine north, range five east of the fourth principal meridian, strikes said line, thence cast on the northern boundary of the State, to the range line between ranges nine and ten cast, thence south on said range line to the northern boundary of Ogle County, thence west on the northern boundary of Ogle County to and passing the north-west corner of the county to the line between sections thirty-three and thirty-four in town- ship twenty-six north, range five east, thence north to the place of beginning, shall form a County to be called Stephen- son, as a tribute of respect to the late Colonel Benjamin Stephenson.
" SEC. 2. That the boundaries of Winnebago County shall be as follows, to wit : commencing on the state line at the north-east corner of the County of Stephenson, thence east on the state line to the section line between sections five and six, in township forty-six north, range three east of the third principal meridian, thence south on said section line to the south boundary of township forty-three north, range three east, thence west on said township line, to the third principrl meridian, thence north on said meridian to the south-east
HON. GEORGE H. HILL OF KINGSTON COUNTY JUDGE.
(lucago Lithographung Co.Chicago.
361
EIGHTEEN THIRTY-SEVEN.
corner of township twenty-six north, range cleven cast of fourth principal meridian, thence west on said line to the range line between ranges nine and ten east, thence north to the place of beginning.
" SEC. 3. And that all that tract of country beginning at the north east corner of township forty-six north, range four east, thence south with the line dividing range four and five east, to the sonth-west corner of township forty-three north, thence west on said line to the south-east corner of Winnebago County, thence north to the place of beginning on the north boundary of the State, shall form a County to be called Boone, in memory of Colonel Daniel Boone, the first settler of the State of Kentucky.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.