USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > History of DeKalb County, Illinois > Part 29
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY.
sat upon the floor or on slab benches, and at meal time went out doors from the sitting-room door to the kitchen, where bountiful meals were provided, for provisions were abundant. The women of this house spun and wove woolen garments for the whole family beside doing the household duties and caring for a large dairy. They only complained that their husbands would not raise flax so that they could have some tow to spin when they had nothing else to do. At Franklin, in the North part of the County, at Somonauk at the South end, and at Paw Paw, were similar settlements of Southern people, but most of the new settlers were from New York and New England.
The country was over-run with horse-thieves and counter- feiters. There being no jails, the labor of confining the pris- oners in Sheriffs' houses and such other places as could be found for them was so burdensome that few arrests were made, and when criminals were imprisoned the great effort was, to get them to run away, so as to relieve the County of the expense of their keeping.
The County Treasury was generally empty. County orders were issued for all expenses, and they were at a great discount, but as they were receivable for taxes, little else could be collected and no money went into the Treasury.
At the County seat, a little village was being built up. It now contained twelve houses. The Mansion House kept by Captain Barnes, was the great center of population. It was crowded with occupants. In one corner was the store kept by John and Charles Waterman, who had moved their goods from the place north of the river where the town had first been started, and where in a little log cabin sixteen feet by eighteen they had first established business. The house was over- crowded with boarders, mostly young men who had come out seeking their fortunes; many of them have since become particularly well known, and prominent in the history of the County. Among them were John, James, Robert and Charles Waterman, Reuben Ellwood, Dr. H. F. Page, Frank Spencer,
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Jesse Rose, John R. Hamlin, E. P. Young. They were a gay set, as full of pranks and fun, and practical jokes, as ever a dozen wild fellows could have been. For some reason the hotel came to be called the Nunnery, and went by that name for many years. It was a most inappropriate title as there was nothing more like a nun about it than the one hired girl in the kitchen. Indeed, there were but three marriage- able women in the place, and when dances and parties were made, the country for twenty miles around was scoured in search of lady partners.
The school was kept in the Court House by Dr. Bill, and it was well attended. The same building also furnished a place for religious meetings, but when Dr. Whitney of Belvi- dere came to deliver a great Whig speech, he gathered his mass-meeting in Carlos Lattin's log cabin. At the time of the election of Harrison and Tyler, there was a grand jollifi- cation. The United States Surveyor, who was working through the County, furnish free liquor to all the town and country round.
A stage route was established during this year, running from St. Charles to Oregon. Timothy Wells and Charles Waterman were the proprietors of the line. They had an elegant four-horse coach, and carried a large number of pas- sengers.
The Circuit Court which met in June, of this year, disposed of one hundred cases in five days. Among the lawyers were some names that have since become eminent. J. Y. Scammon and N. B. Judd came from Chicago. Norman H. Purple and Judge Peters from Peoria, W. D. Barry and S. S. Jones from St. Charles, Chapman and Allen from Ottawa, Nathan Allison from Naperville, and Asa Dodge from Aurora.
The first indictment for selling liquor without a license was tried, and resulted in acquittal-a precedent that has since been most faithfully followed.
The County Commissioners' Court in this year, created twenty-four road districts for the growing County, and raised the license for grocery-keepers to twenty-five dollars.
388
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
School Trustees for the Northern townships seem to have been elected at some previous time, for it is recorded that Frederick Watkins and Andrew Miles, former trustees of Township forty-two, range three, resigned their offices, and Daniel Cronkhite was appointed in their places. Trustees of school lands were also appointed for Townships thirty-seven thirty-eight, and forty-one, in range five. The place of voting in Somonauk precinct was changed from the house of R. Woodruff, to that of Burrage Hough.
The grand struggle for the establishment of the County seat was finished at the August election of this year, by a Waterloo defeat of the opponents of Sycamore.
The County seat seems to have been technically considered to have been removed from Orange or Sycamore, by the vote of the dozen or so who had assembled and voted that it should be removed to Coltonville, in an election held in pursuance of the law, but kept secret from the great mass of the people.
On January 3d, of this year, another act had been passed by the Legislature " permanently to locate the seat of justice for the County of- DeKalb."
The following report was ordered by the County Commis- sioners to be placed upon their records, and explains the final result :
State of Illinois, DeKalb Co.
} 8
I, John R. Hamlin, Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court of said County, and Frederic Love Probate Justice of the Peace, and Harvey Maxfield, Justice of the Peace in and for said County of DeKalb, do hereby certify that at an election held in the several precincts of said County, on the Third Monday in August, A. D. 1840, in pursuance of an act entitled an act permanently to locate the seat of Justice of the County of DeKalb approved January 3d, 1840, there were given two hundred and forty votes in favor of the removal of the seat of Justice of DeKalb County
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from Coltonville. There were given one hundred and forty- three votes against the removal of the seat of Justice from Coltonville ; showing a majority in favor of the removal of the seat of justice from Coltonville, of ninety-seven votes. And there were also given at said election two hundred and seven votes in favor of Sycamore to be the seat of justice of DeKalb County. And there were given at said election one hundred and thirty-seven votes in favor of Brush Point to be the seat of Justice of DeKalb County. Showing a majority of seventy votes in favor of Sycamore to be the seat of justice.
This was the last formal attempt to change the location of the County seat, and as it is likely that a local contest of this kind brought out all of the voters, it is probable that three hundred and eighty-four was about the number of voters then in the County. Morris Walrod was at this time, the Sheriff of the County, and a very efficient officer he proved to be. To induce him to take and keep open the hotel at the County seat, he was promised this office of Sheriff. The horse-thieves and counterfeiters who infested the County found in him a dangerous foe. It was during this spring that he arrested one Winthrop Lovelace, who was supposed to be one of that gang. He was bound over for trial, but it was sev- eral weeks before his trial could be held. Walrod kept him securely ironed, and by day chained to a bed-post in a little back room of his tavern. At night he was secured by irons, to constable Alvah Cartwright, who slept by his side. One night Cartwright attended a grand ball at Coltonville, and coming home fatigued, slept unusually soundly. When he awoke his prisoner was gone. A well-known citizen, and a suspected associate of the gang had supplied him with a file, with which he had cut his bracelets and escaped. But as he fled northward across the mill-dam, daylight had come and he was discovered. A party was soon got out to surround and search the Norwegian Grove, and the hunt was kept up all day as it was certain that he could not have escaped from it, but the search was without success until toward evening a
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HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
. place was discovered where the tall grass of the mill-pond had been parted. The trail was followed, and the poor shivering wretch finally discovered sitting nearly chilled to death, in the cold shallow pond. It took some hours of smart rubbing to save his life. When he was finally brought to trial, he escaped from the Court House, probably amid a crowd of his fellows of the banditti, and was seen no more in this County.
For many years, it was the custom for the Sheriff to keep his prisoners manacled, but to board them at the same table with his other guests at the hotel. They came shuffling in at the first table, usually took the head and did the honors to travellers and other guests, in their best style. It sometimes astonished strangers, but was considered all right by the regular boarders.
John Riddle, one of the first settlers of Franklin, was this year appointed Assessor of District No. 1, F. Love of District No. 2, and Stephen Arnold of District No. 3. It took them six days each to assess the County, and as the result, a tax of three hundred and thirty-four dollars and seventy cents was collected.
Amos Story was Collector for the County.
1841.
The first resident lawyer in the County was admitted to practice during this year, the County Commissioners Court certifying that he was a man of good moral character. His name was Andrew J. Brown. He settled in Sycamore, but the most of the practice at the bar at this time, was monopo- lized by W. D. Barry, A. N. Dodge, B. F. Fridley, and Crothers Champlain.
Sylvanus Holcomb was elected County Commissioner, the other two members of that Board being Martin M. Mack and David Merritt.
The great State Road from Ottawa to Beloit, was laid out this summer. It was made eighty feet in width. It is de- scribed as entering the County at Somonauk, passing Sebra's, Esterbrooks, and Lost Grove, to the south-east corner of the
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Public Square, thence to HI. Durham's, to Deer Creek, and north to the County line.
The winter of 1841-42, was one of uncommon severity. A heavy coating of snow fell on the 8th of November, and it remained on the ground until April 14th, during all which time, with the exception of the usual January thaw, the sleighing was excellent. For a winter of such unusual length and severity, no sufficient provision had been made. Forage for the stock became very scarce, and hundreds died of starv- ation. Hay sold at twenty dollars per ton. The snow be- came crusted over, and the deer entrapped in it could be slaughtered with axes and clubs. They would "yard " together in large numbers in the woods, where they lived on the bark of trees. If driven out into the crusted snow, they could make no progress, and were easily killed. Five hun- dred of these animals are said to have been killed this winter in the northern part of this County, and in the woods of Boone County.
1842.
The terrible winter ended in the middle of April, and the spring bright, balmy and beautiful, opened at once. The crops were all sown in good season, and produced abundantly. In this year for the first time, the bright steel scouring ploughs came into use, and proved one of the most important improvements ever invented for the prairie farmer. Previous to this, the soil had in the expressive phrase of the country, been " buggered over " with the old cast-iron plows, or some strange-looking contrivances of iron rods with a plough-share -tools that would not scour, that must be cleaned every few rods, and that were quite ineffective for the work required of them. Nothing but the extraordinary fertility of the fresh prairie soil enabled the settlers to raise any crops with such culture.
During this year we find E. L. Mayo was certified to be a man of good moral character, and admitted to practice at law.
392
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
He has been ever since a leading lawyer, and has held many public offices.
Under date of March 11th, 1842, is the following official record :
"This day in pursuance of an act entitled an act perma- nently to locate the seat of Justice of the County of DeKalb, approved January 30th, 1840, the Commissioners of said County have selected one hundred and sixty acres of land for County purposes, bounded as follows to-wit: From a point which bears N 541º W. 10 R. 21 Links from the S. W. cor- ner of M. Walrod's dwelling house and S. 70° East 4 R. 22 Links from the S. E. corner of Carlos Lattin's house, running thence N. 9º E. 80 R. thencc S. 81º E. 160 R : thence S. 9° W. 160 R. thence N. 81° W. 160 R. thence N. 9° E. 80 R. to the place of beginning, containing 160 acres.
J. S. WATERMAN, Surveyor.
Lysander Darling as Treasurer of DeKalb County, pre- sented the following account which is interesting as showing the amount of taxes then collected :
Amount of taxes of 1839,
$249,82.
66 1840,
282,98.
66
66 1841, 328,31.
Fines delivered by Clerk, 53,16.
Docket fees delivered by Clerk, 61,50.
These amounts are small as compared with the present revenues of the county, and smaller yet when it is remem- bered that they were all collected in County orders and Jurors certificates, which could hardly be sold for fifty cents on the dollar.
This was the time of very deepest depression in the finan- cial condition of the State as well as of the county. The failure of the State Bank, which occurred in February, had overwhelmed the people with destitution and ruin. When Governor Ford entered upon the duties of his office during this year, he stated formally that in his opinion there was not enough good money in the hands of all the people in the
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State to pay the interest which then came due upon the State debt. The public officers found it difficult to get enough money from the Treasury to pay their salaries and the postage on their letters. The State failing to pay the interest on its debt became the subject of most bitter aspersion and reproach through all of this country, and even in England where some of its bonds were held. It was taunted as a Repudiator, and indeed a considerable party in favor of repudiation was grow- ing up in the State. Its name became a hissing and a bye- word in distant lands. Illinoisans travelling in eastern States or foreign countries were ashamed to acknowledge the State that they came from.
Mr. John R. Hamlin who held the offices of Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, Recorder, and Postmaster and out of the whole of them managed to make only about enough to pay his board-cheap as boarding was-at the June term of the County Commissioners' Court of this year, was granted the privilege of advancing twelve dollars to purchase a Book for Records, with the promise that it should be paid for out of the first money received into the Treasury, Mr. Hamlin always a gentleman of genial, kindly, temper, an universal favorite, subsequently became a wealthy merchant of Chicago, and still later removed again to this County where he became an extensive land-owner, but it is reported that about this time, he was accustomed to travel through the County to collect deeds for record and urge upon those who had deeds the necessity of having them placed upon record, and it is said that for convenience and economy, he often went bare-footed. But current rumors are not always true. Certain it is that all of these offices at that time were not enough to give one man a living. A dozen years later, the Recorders' office alone constantly employed four or five men, and was reported to be worth eight thousand dollars a year to the fortunate holder. Such facts, better than any array of figures, give an idea of the remarkable growth and increase in the population and business of the County.
50
394
HISTORY OF DEKLB COUNTY.
The elections, at this period in the history of the County, were generally held at the residence of some citizen centrally located in the precinct, and right glad was he, after a year or two of experience of the annoyance and trouble of such gath- erings to procure the removal of the place of election to some other location. The place of election in Orange precinct, was at this term, changed from the residence of W. A. Fairbanks to Calvin Colton's spacious and comfortable hotel ; and in Franklin precinct it was changed from the mill of Henry Hicks to the residence of Theophilus Watkins.
Martin M. Mack was re-elected County Commissioner at the August election of this year, and D. W. Lamb was made County Surveyor, an office which he held with occasional intervals during the next twenty-two years.
The chief matters of record of the County Commissioners' Court still continued to be the location of new roads ; but about this time their breadth, which had hitherto been only fifty feet, was enlarged to sixty-six, and in some cases to eighty feet. The Oregon State Road was laid out one hun- dred feet in width. The Circuit Court this year held but one session, and that in September. It was presided over by John D. Caton, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court. S. B. Farwell was States' Attorney, J. C. Kellogg, Clerk, and Morris Walrod Sheriff. Among the leading practitioners at its bar were T. Lyle Dickey, E. L. Mayo, B. F. Fridley, W. D. Barry, N. H. Peters, W. R. Crothers, and A. J. Brown. 1843.
The finances of the County were now in a situation of great embarrassment. A report of a committee appointed to make a careful examination of its affairs, reported that it had issued orders which were still outstanding, to the amount of nine hundred and seventy-two dollars and thirty-seven cents, and the taxes to be collected to pay them would only amount to four hundred and eighty-three dollars, and twenty-nine cents, leaving the County in debt to the amount of four hundred and eighty-nine dollars and eight cents. Small as this amount
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seems now, it was a troublesome load for the young County to carry, and M. M. Mack and Sylvanus Holcomb were au- thorized to endeavor to effect a loan. For this purpose they made several journeys, but to no avail. So large an amount of capital could not be obtained. But the County was gen- erous enough to allow them fifteen dollars each for their expenses, and in place of putting them off with County orders which were of little value, it allowed them to endorse the amount upon their indebtedness to the County for the lots that they had purchased on the town plot.
A tax of one-half of one per cent. was ordered for the ensuing year, but the duties of Mr. John Waterman the County Treasurer, must have been small and the danger of robbery still less, for nearly all of the tax was collected in Jurors' cer- tificates and County orders.
The land in the central towns of the County came in market during this year. This was an important era in the affairs of the settlers. Many had for years previous been hoarding the money that they had been able to save, in anticipation of this important event. From the old stockings and secret recesses of their log cabins, the glittering gold was drawn out and they started in a strong company for the land sale in Chicago. The land was sold off at auction, and from each neighborhood one trusty man was selected to bid off the property as it was offered, while the remainder stood around, armed with clubs and a most ferocious aspect, ready to knock down and execute summary vengeance upon any speculator who should dare to bid for lands that had been claimed and occupied by any of their party. Few were bold enough to attempt it. One unlucky fellow, who committed this offense through mistake, thinking that he was bidding upon another piece of land, was seized in an instant by the crowd of excited squatter-sover- eigns, hustled away and nearly torn in pieces, before he could explain the occurrence and express his readiness to correct the mistake.
But the settlers on this occasion suffered more by the dep-
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY.
redations of pick-pockets than from anything else. Such a crowd furnished a harvest-field for these gentry, and several of our citizens who had come with pockets well lined with gold, found them emptied when they wanted to pay for their land and were obliged to go home moneyless and landless. It was a severe loss. Years of labor would be required to re- place it, and before that time they would lose their land and the improvements which they had spent years in effecting. Simultaneously with the land sale, a number of new claim associations were formed throughout the County, to prevent persons who moved in, from purchasing of Government, lands which those then living near, chose to claim by plowing around them. They were no doubt useful in preventing many from entering farms, to which the expense of improvement and long occupation gave the squatter an equitable title, but they were also in many cases a means of injustice. Men banded them- selves together in such organizations, in order to keep by the force of mob law, other settlers from occupying and holding lands, while they themselves held tracts of enormous extent and paid for none of it.
The County now found itself in a fresh quandary. The one hundred and sixty acres, upon which the village at the County seat had been built, now came in market and was subject to entry. It had pre-empted the quarter-section, but had never proved up its pre-emption right. It had sol- emnly bound itself, in giving deeds of its lots, to acquire the title so soon as the land should come in market, but now that this time had come, it found itself destitute of money and utterly unable to borrow. Any speculator was at liberty to buy and take the best of titles to the town by paying to the Government one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for it. Few of the citizens had money enough to enter their owr claims, and none were willing to lend money to the County. In this dilemma three of the neighboring inhabitants, Jesse C. Kellogg, Carlos Lattin, and Curtis Smith who had an interest in adjoining lands came forward and furnished the
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necessary funds, entered the lands in their own names and promised to wait for re-payment until the time in which it was supposed the County would be able to return the money. This lifted the County out of this temporary embarrassment, but it subsequently happened that the County failed to get back the title from some of these parties, and finally lost a part of the land.
The whole amount of tax collected this year was three hundred and eighty-six dollars and fifteen cents, and of this one hundred and seventy-eight dollars was paid in Jurors' certificates and one hundred and forty-nine in County orders.
The County during this year, commenced a suit with Amos Harman, whom it required to open the Ottawa State Road, and was defeated. It was compelled by the Circuit Court, to allow him thirty-five dollars for damages. This bankrupted the Treasury, and nine patriotic citizens stepped forward and contributed the amount, taking County orders in payment. The Justices elected this year were George H. Hill, Isaac Crampton, Abner Jackman, James Byers, Aaron Randall, Kimball Dow, George Flinn, Russell Huntley, and Z. B. Mayo.
Reuben Pritchard, J. R. Hamlin, and B. F. Hunt, Com- missioners appointed-by the State, laid out the Chicago and Grand-de-Tour State Road, past H. Dayton's, P. Holcomb's, M. Walrod's, Phineas Stevens', Calvin Colton's and thence to the west line of the County. Robert Sterrett built a mill this year on Somonauk creek, and E. P. Gleason and W. A. Miller built others at or near the present village of Genoa. This village was at this time and for many years after, the lar- gest and most lively in the County. There were several stores, a line of stages running through from Chicago to Galena, and H. N. Perkins this year built a fine large hotel which has been a famous resort for balls and parties even to this day. A handsome framed school-house also replaced the shabby old log structure heretofore used for that purpose.
398
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
1844.
This was the second since the settlement of the County, of the regular septennial wet seasons. The floods began early in summer, but not early enough to ruin the splendid crops of winter wheat which were everywhere abundant. Some farmers report that they cut and bound their wheat while standing ankle-deep in water, and then carried it out on the high knolls to dry before stacking. When they went to Aurora to mill, four yoke of cattle were required to draw a moderate grist. A great many cattle and horses feeding upon the prairies became mired inextricably, and the calls were numerous for teams to attach long ropes or chains to them and draw them out. Most of the crops were seriously damaged by the floods and storms. All of the bridges that surrounded the County seat were carried away by the flood, and the same was true of the bridges all over the country. The Mississippi was swollen to four times its usual size, and steamboats moved freely through the streets of St. Louis, Kaskaskia, and other cities upon the rivers. Houses, fences, and stock of all kinds were swept away, and when the water subsided, the soil of the valleys was covered with sand so as to ruin the land for cul- tivation. The grist mills were almost universally swept away, and there was a great destitution of meal and flour. It was a severe blow to the prosperity of the young, growing State. One good growing out of this evil was that the war with the Mormons which was then in active progress, was stopped- neither party being able to continue it through such endless storms, and seas of unfathomable mire.
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