USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > History of DeKalb County, Illinois > Part 31
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The expense of supporting the paupers which had now run up to about six hundred dollars per year, was considered to be a heavy burden upon the County, and in the hope of les- sening it somewhat, the Board of Supervisors resolved to pur- chase a County poor farm upon which some of this class of unfortunates could be made uscful and contribute to their own maintenance. Messrs. Tappan and Tindall were authorized to contract for such a farm, which was to be located in one of the two middle tier of townships, and Mr. Harrington who was still Chairman of the Board advertised for a loan of three thousand dollars with which to purchase it. In September, the farm of A. H. Cartright, on the road between Sycamore and DeKalb, was purchased for this purpose, the County
412
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY.
borrowing the purchase money, at the rate of ten per cent interest. Some applications for a license for the sale of liquors were also made at this session of the Board, but were promptly squelched by a resolution offered by H. S. Champlin, and carried unanimously, that this Board would grant no license for that purpose.
A little hamlet of houses had now sprung up at the present location of DeKalb. Indeed there had been a couple of stores, a tavern, and a blacksmith's shop for two or three years. The village was called Buena Vista, and went by that name for several years.
1854,
On the 31st of May, 1864, appeared in Sycamore the first number of the first newspaper ever printed in DeKalb county. The first number of this paper which was ever printed, is now in the possession of Jabez Gwinnup, of Cortland, who prizes it as a valuable relic. It was called the Republican Sentinel, and edited and published by H. A. Hough. The editor announced that the politics of the paper would be " Republican Democratic," which sounds oddly enough at this day ; but before the year was over, he was publishing in his columns the proceedings of the Conventions of two parties, the Republican and the Democratic. The Sentinel gave a vigorous and enthusiastic support to the Prohibitory Liquor Law presented to the people of the State that year for adop- tion or rejection, and from its columns one would have inferr- ed that the politics of the county, that season, hinged on the question of prohibition. And indeed, the people of DeKalb county went into this canvass with deep earnestness. On the 29th of June 1854, a Main Law Alliance was formed, and a thorough canvass of the county commenced. It cannot be stated with truth that there was an unusual amount of drunk- ness in our county ; but they fought the dragon with weapons of flaming fire, and if it had depended upon the vote of De- Kalb county, the vending of ardent spirits would have been forever silenced in the State of Illinois. But two towns in
413
EIGHTEEN FIFTY-FOUR.
the entire county-Kingston and Pierce-voted against pro- hibition. The following is the vote by towns :
FOR.
AGAINST.
Franklin,
49
53
Shabbona,
48
20
Paw Paw,
90
18
South Grove,
56
3
Somonauk,
135
19
Clinton,.
59
9
Genoa,
64
42
Pampas,
136
10
Kingston,
55
70
Pierce, ..
28
32
Squaw Grove,
43
-T
Mayfield,
67
14
Victor, .
32
1
Sycamore,
207
38
DeKalb, ..
140
21
1189
357
Majority for Prohibition, 832.
During the year 1854 the land speculators seem to have been fully aroused to the sense of the value of the prairie lands of DeKalb county, and nearly all of them were entered. Messrs. C. C. Shepard, H. A. Mix, J. M. Adsit, Mark How- ard and a number of others entered with land warrants which cost them about eighty cents per acre, immense tracts of the richest land in the world, and which they are now selling at twenty dollars per acre.
In glancing over the files of the Sentinel, we find the ac- count of a trip made by the editor into the southern portion of the county ; and in this article he made the prophecy about one of our towns which the reader will perceive has been more than realized. He said : " We next visited New- ark Station, three miles east of Somanauk Depot. This is also a brisk little town and improving rapidly. It is in the midst of a beautiful farming country, and does the railroad business for Newark in Kendall county. It will be a formi- dable competitor of Somonauk." When we consider that
414
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
" Newark Station" has become a town of twenty-five hun- dred inhabitants-SANDWICH by name-and that instead of being distinguished simply for "doing the railroad business for Newark in Kendall county," she is the centre of a rich and populous region, shipping annually hundreds of thous- ands of dollars worth of her own manufactures, and re- ceiving annually a million dollars worth of merchandise for her own trade, we can form some conception of how DeKalb county has increased in wealth and population within a few years past.
On the 14th of September 1854, there was held at Syca- more a political mass meeting of such a peculiar nature that a part of the record of its preccedings are worth perpetuating. It was the organization of a new party out of the three old parties, and from this meeting may be dated the existence of the Republican party in DeKalb county. At this meeting delegates were appointed to attend a Republican Convention called to meet at Aurora ; and these delegates were thus ap- portioned among the three old parties represented. As most of the names are prominent ones in our present politics, the rcader may be interested in seeing their former affinities.
Democrats .- Horace W. Fay, G. A. Colton, Joseph Six- bury, James Harrington and Royal Crossett.
Free Soilers .- Pierpont Edwards, Stephen Townsend, Thurston Carr, David West, James HI. Beveridge, E. S. Gregory.
Whigs .- Reuben Pritchard, W. J. Hunt, H. A. Joslyn, William Byers, Dr. E. Rose, and John N. Braddock.
The Third Annual Agricultural Fair of DeKalb County was held on the 11th and 12th days of October of this year. It was a very tame and spiritless affair, only twenty-six pre- miums being awarded in all, and these being divided among eighteen persons. Those of our citizens who participated in the demonstration were mortified at the poor display of the industry of the country, and at the close of the Fair a meeting of the County Agricultural Society was held, at which it was
415
-
EIGHTEEN FIFTY-FOUR
resolved to put forth every effort to enlist a deeper interest in the Annual Fairs among the farmers of the County ; and from the success which has attended subsequent Fairs, it is evident that their resolution was carried out with energy.
At the County election this year, William Patten of Som- onauk, was chosen Representative in the Legislature, William Phelps, of Sycamore, Sheriff, and Lorenzo Whittemore, Cor- oner-the latter office having been held by Mr. Whittemore uninterruptedly up to the present time.
John Settle, the Treasurer of the County, an old and re- spected citizen, died on the 22d of October of this year, in the township of Pampas; and the vacancy in the office occa- sioned by his death was filled by the County Court by the appointment of Joseph Sixbury.
The assessment of personal property in the County for 1854, was six hundred and forty-two thousand, five hundred and thirty-four dollars ; the total taxable property was one million nine hundred and fifty-two thonsand, eight hundred and two dollars. The total tax levied was twenty-five thousand, three hundred and seventeen dollars. The number of horses in the County was four thousand and ninety ; the number of ncat cattle, fifteen thousand, seven hundred and forty ; sheep, eight thousand, five hundred and eight.
An act of Congress passed in September, 1850, had dona- ted to certain States the swamp and overflowed lands within their borders for educational purposes, and this State had decided to transfer this property to the several Counties to be expended at their discretion. The land had been surveyed and a Commissioner of Drainage appointed as early as 1853. A special session of the Board of Supervisors of this County, was held in September of this year to take measures to dispose of these lands. On motion of Supervisor William Patten it was voted, that the net proceeds of the sale of these lands, should be paid to the County School Commissioner, and by him to the Township Treasurers, to be loaned out for the benefit of the school fund, in the same manner as were the
416
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
proceeds of the sale of the 16th, or school section in cach town. The price of the first-class land was fixed at six dollars; of the second class at three dollars and fifty cents, and of the third class at one dollar and twenty-five cents. But no small amount of these lands had been purchased of Government, by individuals, before the report of the Surveyor, designating the lands selected as swamp lands had been received by the United States authorities. It was provided that titles to these lands should be confirmed to the original purchasers upon their paying the County the purchase money or relinquishing the warrant used in the entry, it being understood that the United States would refund the purchase money to those who had thus entered them. At this session a petition was received for the organization of the town of Afton which was duly accepted.
A smart enterprising village had grown up about the rail- road station at Buena Vista or DeKalb, during the preceding two or three years. It had grown up with wonderful rapidity, and promised ere long to become the largest village in the County. Being the most centrally located, its people looked upon it as likely to become at an early date the seat of justice for the county, and with good reason, as there was then no railroad to Sycamore, and people were extremely impatient of traveling to the county seat, through the almost unfathom- able mire that always impeded the traveler at the time of holding courts. A sharp contest over this question arose at the September term of the " Supervisors' Court " as the records then described that body, upon the proposition to build a jail for the use of the County. There was a pressing necessity for such a building however, and an order was passed to appropriate thirty-five hundred dollars for that purpose if the citizens of Sycamore would subscribe fifteen hundred additional.
The County tax for 1855 amounted to eight thousand two hundred and fourteen dollars, and a committee of the Board reported that the County owned a poor farm valued at four
417
EIGHTEEN FIFTY-SIX.
thousand four hundred and five dollars, and County town lot valued at one thousand one hundred and thirty-five dollars.
Roswell Dow was elected County Treasurer, and Jacob R. Crossett School Commissioner.
In 1855, the relative population of the three principal villages in the northern portion of the County was : Sycamore eight hundred and sixty-six, DeKalb five hundred and fifty- seven, Cortland one hundred and eighty-six.
The census of 1855 showed the following population in the several towns :
Genoa, 895, Kingston 874, Franklin 837, South Grove 400, Mayfield 835, Sycamore 1646, Pampas 1182, DeKalb 1588, Pierce 627, Squaw Grove 515, Clinton 867, Shabbona 966, Paw Paw 944, Victor 899, Somonauk 1121-13,636.
The town of DeKalb at this time embraced within its bor- ders the present town of Malta, and a part of Afton.
1856.
This year may be marked with a white stone in the annals of our County. It was one of extraordinary prosperity and remarkable increase of population. The new comers now became fully satisfied that farms could be advantageously occupied and worked upon the broad prairie at great distances from timber. Proximity to a railroad and consequently to a market for their produce, they concluded was of greater im- portance than proximity to their supply of fuel and fencing. Many new settlers began farming without any timber at all. They fenced their farms with wire, and bought coal for fuel.
The Crimean war was in progress and created an extensive demand in Europe for the wheat which those countries could no longer procure from the ports of the Baltic. The spring wheat, which old residents had been accustomed to sell at thirty and fifty cents, now rose in price to one dollar and a half per bushel. Lands rose in value ; but still the produce of one acre in a single year would often pay the cost of ten acres of land. The real intrinsic value of lands so productive, with an un- unlimited market in the immediate vicinity, seemed enormously
53
418
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
above the price at which they were sold. Every farmer bought more land. Men entirely without capital bought wild lands on credit and commenced the expensive process of improving them entirely with borrowed money. In spite of the great amount of money received for the sale of produce, the people of the County were more deeply in debt at the end of this year than ever before. The merchants, stimulated by the flourishing condition of the people, gave credit to every one and sold enormous quantities of goods " on tick." When the time of payment came in the autumn, but few were willing to pay. They wanted to use their money in payments upon their land or for other purposes, and the merchants generally took notes for the indebtedness and extended the time of payment. Everybody was " good," and everybody got credit for all they wished to buy. The results of this unlimited extension of the credit system will be found in the record of the following years.
At the January term of the Board of Supervisors the Committee appointed to solicit subscriptions from the citizens of Sycamore for the erection of a County Jail reported no success in their mission, and recommended that the County proceed to build a jail without their aid. After a heated discussion and considerable filibustering in opposition, the Board appropriated five thousand dollars for this purpose and appointed J. S. Brown, James Harrington, and Alonzo Ellwood a building committee. Supervisors G. H. Hill of Kingston, J. S. Brown of South Grove, William Patten of Somonauk, I. W. Garvin of Genoa, W. T. Kirk of Franklin, H. S. Champlin of Pampas, James Parker of Mayfield, C. M. Humiston of Pierce, and James Harrington of Sycamore, voted in favor of this action, and T. S. Terry of Shabbona, and Alonzo Converse of DeKalb opposed it. The work was at once begun and after twenty-one years passed without that convenience, DeKalb County had its Jail.
William Fordham, Drainage Commissioner, reported that he had sold lands to the value of twenty-three thousand seven
419
EIGHTEEN FIFTY-SEVEN.
hundred and eighty-three dollars and seventy-six cents, and received in cash fourteen thousand, five hundred and seventy- five dollars and eighteen cents, and in notes nine thousand, two hundred and sixteen dollars and fifty-eight cents. The Com- mittee report that they are satisfied with the course of Ford- ham in the matter.
The town of Malta was created at this meeting of the Su- pervisors under the name of Milton, which was subsequently changed to Ætna. The north half of the township at the south of it, now called Milan, was made a part of this new town.
The County tax for 1856 was $6,851.95. The assessed value of real estate of the County was $2,245,614.00; town lots, $174,983; personal property, $1,143,887; railroads, $285,753.
The winter of 1855-56 was signalized by the most furious snow-storm ever before known in the country. For three weeks no trains ran through upon the railroads, and not a mail was received in the County.
1857.
The year 1857 opened very auspiciously, and business of all kinds was prospering. The credit of the people of the County was good, the crops were bountiful and abundant, but about the middle of the summer came a crash in the financial affairs of the country. Business of all kinds all over the country had become expanded to an unusual extent, and it was flush and easy times everywhere. With the sudden fail- ure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, confidence in every banking or commercial institution of the country became de- stroyed, and they fell into bankruptcy by hundreds. The hard times fell upon no part of the country with more sever- ity than upon this new and enterprising County of De Kalb. Nearly every merchant in the County was forced to suspend payment. They urged the payment of their claims upon the farming community, but grain had fallen in price. Good
420
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
wheat, which had been worth $1.50 per bushel during the pre- vious year, now fell to forty and fifty cents, and the farmers, who had based their calculations upon the large prices of the previous year, now found themselves unable to meet their engagements. Large numbers made assignments, others covered their property with mortgages to favored friends, so as to keep their numerous creditors in the background, and many others gathered together what they could convert into money, and fled the country. The business of chasing down run-away debtors was an important pursuit during the fall and winter of that sad, disastrous year, 1857. One of the prominent business men of Sycamore, an extensive manufac- turer of carriages and wagons, a generous, high-spirited man, harrassed by the necessities of a number of his workmen whom he was unable to pay, and the importunities of other creditors who were equally urgent, after a day spent in scouring the country in the vain endeavor to collect money due him, and a night of sleepless anxiety over his want of success, rose before daylight, and plunged headlong into his own well, whence he was dragged out a few hours after, a suicide's corpse. He
was a citizen who could ill be spared, a firm friend, an affec- tionate husband and parent. The event deepened the general gloom that hung over the town, and scarce a ray of light pierced the dark clouds of adversity that obscured the pros- pect.
The Board of Supervisors during this year devoted much of their time and attention to an investigation of, and an endeavor to arrange, the vexed and intricate matter of the swamp-land fund, so as to make it a source of some profit to the County, but without much success. They, however, sold the claims of the County to W. W. Heaton for eight thousand five hundred dollars, but Heaton subsequently failed to pay for it. A summary of their proceedings will be given at a later date. Roswell Dow was re-elected County Treasurer, and James Harrington School Commissioner, both gentlemen of the highest character, whose long connection with its polit-
421
EIGHTEEN FIFTY-EIGHT
ical affairs was always a benefit to the County, and who per- formed their duties with scrupulous exactness and strict integrity.
The township of Milan was organized during this year, which completed the organization of the County into eighteen town- ships, each six miles square.
The Republican Sentinel, the only newspaper in the County, was purchased, during this spring, by the political friends of Senator Douglas, and under the editorial care of E. L. and Z. B. Mayo, and Jacob A. Simons, began to teach the politi- cal doctrines of the Douglas Democracy. Political feeling was excited at this time, and the Republicans, under the lead of C. M. Brown, James H. Beveridge, D. B. James, and others, at once took measures to start a Republican paper. Their efforts resulted in the establishment of the True Re- publiean, which, for years, continued to be one of the best country weeklies in the State. Its editor, Mr. C. W. Waite, was a facile and fluent writer, with a good deal of literary taste and talent, and a remarkable enthusiasm in politics.
1858.
This year was another in the regular course of those wet seasons which have been noted as coming every seventh year. The spring weather was tolerably fair, and promised well; but before the season for planting corn arrived, floods of rain drowned vegetation, enveloped the country in seas of mud, and rendered it almost impossible to conduct farming operations with any degree of profit.
The wheat crop had become well started and near harvest time was promising an abundant yield when a series of moist hot days blighted it and in a few days' time destroyed its value. There was less than half a crop.
This was a staggering blow to the farming community who had depended upon the promising crop to tide them over and out of the depths of depression to which the financial crisis of the year before had consigned them. In June the village of Sandwich which had grown up like Jonah's gourd, into one
.
422
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY.
of the largest villages in the County, was visited by a destruc- tive fire which consumed a considerable portion of the business buildings of the place, and caused a very serious loss to the thrifty little town. But the recuperative energies of its citi- zens proved equal to the emergency, and in a few months, that part of the town was rebuilt, and the prosperity of the place seemed greater than before. The citizens of Sycamore con- vinced that they must secure a connection with the great railroad system of the country in order to maintain the vitality of the town and retain its position as the seat of justice for the County, during this year commenced the construction of a branch railrood to connect with the Galena Railroad at Cortland. It was completed during the following year.
The first Teachers' Institute ever held in the Couuty assembled in October, and had a successful and profitable session. It gave an impetus to the educational interests of the County, and stimulated its teachers to improve their systems of instruction.
The County Agricultural Society held a very flourishing fair during this year, and at its regular meeting decided to locate a Fair ground permanently upon the grounds adjoining the Kishwaukee river directly north of the village of Sycamore.
William Patten of Somonauk, was re-elected Representative to the Legislature from this County, which at this time was districted with the neighboring County of Kane. A. K. Stiles was chosen County Clerk, and held the office for the following eight years. Henry Safford was chosen Sheriff.
At the December session of the Supervisors, the name of ths town of Etna was changed to Malta. A strong report was presented in favor of erecting a fire-proof building for Court Records, but the proposition was voted down.
During the year 1860, four weekly papers were published in DeKalb County. There were the True Republican edited by Daniel Dustin ; the Sycamore Sentinel edited by E. L. Mayo, who had lately succeeded Charles M. Chase; the DeKalb Times edited by -,and the Prairie -
425
EIGHTEEN FIFTY -EI GIIT.
Home, which was published at Sandwich. The three first named papers were edited with unusual ability. The Sentinel and Times were Democratic in politics, the Prairie Home was neutral, and the True Republican, as its name would indicate, was devoted to the principles of the Republican party.
Some idea of the scarcity of money and the pressure of the times may be inferred from the fact that the list of lands ad- vertised as delinquent for taxes this spring comprised about four thousand tracts. Upon petition of the Board of Super- visors, our Representative procured the passage of an act suspending the collection of taxes for two months.
A tornado swept through the Northern portion of the County during the month of April, prostrating broad belts of heavy timber like grass before the scythe of the mower. Many lives were endangered, but none were lost.
A remarkable meteor during the succeeding winter excited some attention. It appeared to have fallen to the ground a mile or so north of the village of Sycamore, and a party went to find it. Their explorations failed to bring to light any portion of the expected ærolite, but unwilling to be laughed at for their pains they brought back some glassy fragments from a brick kiln with which, they so far succeeded in imposing upon public credulity, as to induce a visit from a scientific gentleman connected with the Smithsonian Institute, who came post haste from Washington to examine and report upon the phenomenon.
The total tax raised in the County during this year was sixty-nine thousand, nine hundred and five dollars, of which about seventeen thousand was State tax, seven thousand school tax, eight thousand County tax, and the thirty-eight thousand Town, Road, Bridge and other taxes. The total valuation of the property of the County was three million, five hundred and fifty-six thousand, nine hundred and forty- one dollars.
1859.
The affairs of our County of DeKalb and its people moved 54
426
HISTORY OF DE KALB COUNTY.
on quietly during this year 1859. The country was con- stantly improving and increasing in population in spite of the hard times which had continued since 1857 to oppress the energies of the people. The crops of this year were seriously injured by a prolonged drought which was so severe that large numbers of cattle were reported to have perished for want of water. The prices of produce were still low, the people were still deeply in debt, and many who had weathered the storm till this time now fled before it and ran away from their accumulating debts.
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