USA > Illinois > Grundy County > History of Grundy County, Illinois > Part 16
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 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
The early settlers here found the public lands in a very unsatisfactory shape. Congress, in 1827, had granted to the State in aid of a proposed canal, the alter- nate sections found in the space of five miles on each side of the proposed line of its construction. These lands were resur- veyed by the State in 1829; the "odd sections " selected, Chicago and Ottawa laid off, and in 1830, some lots brought into market. Under this sale, the only property bought in Grundy County, was the purchase of Mr. William Hoge on
141
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTT.
Nettle Creek. Up to 1834, the Congress lands were subject to pre-emption, and those who came prior to that date found no difficulty in securing the property upon which they had made improvements. The larger number of Grundy County's pioneers, however, eame subsequent to 1833 hoping that the privilege of pre-emption would be extended. This, the government did not do, but ordered a sale of the lands. In the meanwhile, considerable improve- ments had been made; each man striving to include all the land that the old pre- emption law would allow. In February, 1835, the lands were advertised to be sold; Ranges 1, 2 and 3 east, and all west of them from the southern line of township 13, to the northern boundary of the State, at Galena; and from range 3, to the eastern border of the State, at Chicago. The sale began at Chieago, on June 15, the land being offered at anetion, and sold to the highest bidder above $1.25 per acre. The sale at the latter place was the one in which the settlers of this county were interested, and they soon found their worst fears realized. The town of Chicago was full of land speculators, who were ready to bid against the settlers for lands upon which they had "squatted " and improved. The sale was made by ranges, and matters went quietly forward until a spirited con- test arose over some land at Marseilles, on which Ephraim Sprague had erceted a saw- mill. That night there was a meeting of settlers and speculators, and finding that the land-holders were bound to assert their prior elaim by foree if need be, the speeulators made a virtue of necessity, and agreed that the actual settlers should have the privilege of purchasing a quarter-
section without competition. To carry out this arrangement, a committee of three from each township was appointed, who should certify to the aetnal settlers, and appoint a man who should bid off the property. Instead of several persons, Dr. Goddard was chosen to bid off the property in the region covering La Salle County, as then constituted. This arrangement greatly discouraged the foreign land speculators, and it is said $500,000 left the town on the following morning. Thus weakened and discouraged, the speeulators conceded to the settlers the privilege of peaceably bidding off more than a quarter- section, provided their improvements cov- ered more land, and on reaching range 8, Salmon Rutherford claimed the right to bid off' in this way, all he had money to buy, and this being conceded, became tlie rule of the sale. This land auction, which continued for upwards of two weeks, was held for a day or two on the steps of a store which stood where 121 Lake street now is, this spot proving to be too muddy for comfort, the sale was adjourned to Garrett's new auction rooms near South Water street, where the weight of the crowd, breaking down some part of the structure, the sale was finished in a store room on Sonth Water street. On the second of August following, the books were opened for entries and then the speculators, having little opposition, bonght every available piece of timber in the northeast part of 'de State.
As this section of the country gradually became settled and less dependent upon the older settlements, the county seat at Ottawa was felt to be at too great distance from the northern limits of the county. The demands of a frontier farm rendered the loss of
142
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
several days on the occasion of every nec- essary visit to the county capital a serious burden, while the tedious character of traveling facilities aggravated the burden by the discomfort of the journey. In addition to this it was felt that those por- tions of the county which had readier access to the county scat had an undue influence, which acted to the prejudice of the less represented limits. These motives, what- ever else may have entered into the movement, were sufficient to create a desire for a division of the county. Jacob Clay- pool, in settling in Wauponsee, with shrewd forecast, had satisfied his mind that the distance between Ottawa and Joliet-the latter not then a county seat, but of such growing importance that he believed it could not be ignored in the formation of a county-left space for another county with its center near the present location of Mor- ris. The natural discontent of this section of the county was therefore first crystallized by the efforts of Mr. Claypool and G. W. Armstrong, who, though not so far distant from Ottawa, became interested in the movement. It was a year or two before the idea secured supporters enough to challenge the serions attention of the lower part of the county, but when it did there was consider- able opposition manifested. However, the unwieldy size of La Salle was manifest, and the opposition finally addressed itself to the effort to confine the surrender to as small a territory as possible. The supporters of the proposition for a new county, while united against those who opposed the divis- ion, were by no means united as to the line of division. The friends of the Grundy County plan were surrounded by those who desired a different division with reference
to other interests, giving rise to a conflict of interests that afforded scope for diplo- matic management and rendered the issue by no means certain. The supporters of the Kendall County division, having " pooled their issues " with those of Grundy, the prospects of success visibly brightened. In the fall of 1840, Wm. E. Armstrong, a man of energy and ability, seeing that the for- mation of Grundy might be turned to speculative account, interested himself in the project, and securing in addition to others a numerously signed petition for the two counties, presented it to the General Assembly in the winter of 1840-41; by which bills erecting the counties of Kendall and Grundy were passed, the latter being approved by the Governor Feb. 17, 1841, and the Kendall bill two days later.
At this time the public interest was cen- tered in the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, the construction of which was being delayed by lack of funds, and all public measures were made more or less subsidiary to this object. It was therefore required in the act erecting Grundy County, that the "Seat of Justice" should be loeat- ed " on the line of the Illinois and Michi- gan Canal, on canal lands," of which terri- tory, not to exceed ten acres, was to be laid off " as a town site, embracing lots, streets, alleys and a public square;" the lots thus formed to be assigned one half to the State and one half to the county, " in alternate lots of equal value." For the lots assigned to the State, the county was to pay ten dol- lars an acre, and this revenue devoted by the Canal Commissioners to the purposes of the canal. A board to carry out these provisions of the act was constituted, to be composed of the Canal Commissioners,
1.43
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
IIon. Newton Cloud and Gens. Thornton and Fry, and William E. Armstrong, R. S. Duryea and Gen. W. B. Burnett, the latter an engineer on the canal. A glance at thie situation demonstrated the fact that to se- eure anything near a central location, the county seat would necessarily be placed on section 7 or 9, in township 33, range 7. Seetion 9, was objectionable to the Canal Commissioners, as there was but a frae- tion of its northeast corner north of the river, and this was the only portion suitable for a town site. Section 7 was objection- able to the local members of the board, principally because their lands were locat- ed in the vicinity of the other position, and that the approach to the site from the south, would be over the low bottoms which would oblige travel to make a con- siderable detour. Such a conflict of inter- ests left no room for compromise, and the result of a vote was a dead-loek," Gen. Burnett voting with the local members.
Under the organizing aet an election was held at the cabin of Columbus Pinney, May 24, 1841, with Perry A. Claypool, Robert Walker and John Beard, Sr., as judges of election. One hundred and forty-eight votes were east, which, as there was a spirited contest over these first of- fiees. represented the entire population. It should be noted, however, that about one third of these votes represented an Irish element brought here by the work on the canal, and stayed here but a short time. In this election, Henry Cryder, Jacob Clay- pool and James MeKeen were made county commissioners; James Nagle, elerk; L. W. Claypool, recorder; Isaac Hoge, sheriff,*
Joshua Collins, probate justice; + and .J. L. Pickering, treasurer.# On June 14, 1841, the commissioners eleet with James Nagle as clerk, met at the house of William E. Arm- strong, and after attending to the prelim- inary duties in relation to oaths and bonds, proceeded to organize the county. On the organization of La Salle County ranges 1 and 2 constituted Vermillion Precinct; ranges 3 and 4 Ottawa Preeinet, and ranges 5, 6, 7 and S the Eastern Precinct. In June, 1834, a "Northern Precinet " was erected inelnd- ing Au Sable Grove and vieinity, and a year later, in June, 1835, Wauponsee was erected, embracing the whole of what is now Grundy County. In the following December that part of Wauponsee and the county north of the river was divided into two preeinets, the dividing line starting at the river on the line between sections 3 and 4, township 33, R. 7, and going to section 21, 36, 7. The territory east of this line was known as Franklin, and west of this line as Grafton. The newly formed county was in this shape when the first Board of Commissioners sat down to arrange its political divisions. At their first session they formed the first precinet, composed of all of township 34, in range 8, north of the Illinois and Desplaines Rivers, and called it Dresden; the second, composed of all territory north of the river in ranges 6 and 7, they called Jefferson; the third composed of all territory comprised in range 6, and the west half of range 7 south of the river, they called Wauponsee; and the fourth, composed of all territory south of the river, and east of the middle line of
*Mr. Hoge refused to quality, and at a special election held Sept. 25, 1841, William E. Armstrong was elected.
+L. S. Robbins was elected subsequently, in place of Mr. Collins who failed to qualify.
#Sidney Dunton was elected first treasurer but failed to qualify.
144
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
range 7, they called Kankakee. Subse- quently, on December 6, 1841, Grundy Precinct was erected ont of the east side of Jefferson, and comprised all of range 7, north of the river. On September 8, 1847, Mazon Preeinet was erected ont of the Territory of Kankakee, lying south of an east and west line drawn through the mid- dle of sections 25 and 30, in township 33, range 8, and continned through sections 25 and 27, in township 33, range 7. There were no further changes until March 2, 1850, when under the new Constitution, the Board of Supervisors through George H. Kiersted, Phillip Collins and Robert Gibison acting as commissioners, made the preeinet lines to coincide with the township lines, save where the rivers made a devia- tion necessary. The present names and lines are those fixed at that time sare in the case of the boundaries of Felix which was attached to Wauponsee, and was named and given a separate existence Nov. 22, 1854. The present boundaries between the two townships were arranged on peti- tion of their citizens, September 9, 1856. The original names of Fairview, Addison and Dover were changed by the request of the State anditor, respectively to " Ari- anna," Braceville and Goodfarm.
One of the first duties imposed upon the County Commissioners by the act cre- ating Grundy County, was to " prepare a place for holding courts in said county." The county at this time possessed neither buildings nor land, and it was ordered that the house of Win. E. Armstrong be used for the court. This seemed to be the most available place for the purpose, and con- . tinued to be so used, notwithstanding a formal protest by Mr. Cryder, until the
May term in 1843, when Mr. Armstrong, having erected a frame wooden building 20 by 40 feet and two stories high, on the northwest corner of the present court house lot, the court was transferred to this new temple of justice. In the meanwhile the "dead-lock" on the question of locating had been broken, and the matter decided in favor of its present location. The com- missioners, therefore, finding this building suitably located, bought the building which, after having it " lathed and plastered," cost a total of $485.36. The county offices were in the upper story, the east room being as- signed to the Clerk, and the southwest room to the Recorder. As the court room was the most available hall in the town, it found considerable demand for this object other than that to which it had been devot- ed, and its use was finally restricted to re- ligious, political and court purposes. This modest edifice survived until the erection of the present court house which cost $22,- 760, and was accepted April 26, 1858. The " Commissioners' Court," as it was called, rivaled the Circuit Court in importance. It provided for court and jury, for prisoner and pauper; it ordered roads and licensed ferries, regulated the early tavern's bill of fare and laid its paternal hand on trade; it was in that day the sole arbiter of the conn- ty's destiny. The difficulties under which this executive board of the county labored hase been long forgotten and now find ex- pression ouly in the musty records of that time. The oft recurrence of the same names in the list of juries, the claims made for "guarding prisoners," and sums paid for the care of paupers, suggest a lack of resources in bothi means and men, which was characteristic of pioneer days. An
145
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
incident, published by Mr. Perry Arm- strong, "points the moral." Michael D. Prendegast, a man of fair scholastic acquire- inents, but of inordinate self-esteem, in Angust, 1847, was elected Probate Justice of the Peace by the large Irish vote which was then an important element in county politics. IIis success stimulated his vanity, which he betrayed by signing his name " Michel De Prendegast," and adorning his person with a Catalonian cloak, stove- pipe hat and a faney ivory headed cane. Ilis wife expressed the family pride by remark- ing to a friend: " My husband is none of your common justices like Pat Hynds; he is the reprobate justice of the peace."
The greatness thus thrust upon him could not satisfy all the demands of his earlier tastes, and the " De Prendegast" was found, one Sunday evening, wending his way to one of the saloons with his judicial eloak about him. ITis entrance was greeted by a numerous and noisy crowd, and as he prodneed a bottle from the folds of his eloak, ordering it filled with port wine, Owen Lamb, noted no less for his strength and size than for his love of fun and adven- ture, stepped up to the justice, saying: "Judge, we will all drink with you, and I'll have the best in the house; give me some brandy." This was too much for the self-complacent dignity of the "judge," and he burst ont with : " The likes of you, Owen Lamb, insulting me! Why, I'll blow your brains out on the spot; " and carried away with his anger, he instantly presented an old horse pistol to carry out his threat. The weapon was instantly knocked to the other side of the room, when the judge precipitately left the field.
The wits saw fun in this incident, and at
the suggestion of Win. Armstrong and George Kiersted, Lamb brought action against Prendegast for assault. The insti- gators of the action represented the prose- eution, and the defendant, aided by the only lawyers in the place, E. II. Little and C. M. Lee, appeared on the part of the defense. The proofs in behalf of the prosecution were positive, elear and unquestioned, hence the defendant confined his efforts to prove his good character. Among other witnesses, L. W. Claypool, deposed substantially that he had known the defendant a long time; his reputation as a law abiding citizen was good; he did not consider him a willful or malicions man; not half so dangerous as a little black dog the judge owned. Dr. Curtis testified that he had never consid- ered the judge a malicious or dangerous man, but rather as a d-d fool. This was the tenor of the testimony for the defense.
In the meanwhile, news of the trial had come to the ears of the devoted wife as she was engaged in " wiping the dishes." IIer impetuosity knew no method, but rushing out with a eup and towel in her hand, she entered the court room, just as Kiersted was addressing the court. Without a word of parley or protest she rushed up to him say- ing: "So you have turned lawyer, Mr. Kiersted, take that!" at the same time ae- companying her words with a blow of the teacup on his breast, which shivered her missile to atoms. Utterly surprised by the attaek he drew back his fist to strike, when he recognized his assailant and gallantly apologized for threatening a woman.
During the progress of the trial, the de- fendant was pelted with eggs and subjected to other personal indignities. As he rose to " sum up" the evidence, an egg struck him
146
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
squarely in the ear. Throwing his hand up to the smitten organ, he exclaimed: "I'm kilt! I'm kilt!" and instantly feeling the soft material oozing out of his stunned ear, he displayed his hand covered with the meat of the egg, and with a horrified ejac- ulation, "See me brains!" broke with the speed of a quarter horse for his residence, declaring as the hope of a longer existence dawned upon his mind, " I'll demand pro- tection from the Governor and his posse comitatus." Esquire Barber, before whom the trial was had, discovered the whole matter was intended for a joke, and dis- charged the defendant.
The first jail was built on or near the site of the old brick structure south of the court house. There is no record of this, but tradi- tion has it that it was a two-story log house with a square excavation in the ground, with an entrance in the center of the lower apartment. The prisoner was dropped in and secured by an iron grate over the open- ing and shielded from the bare earth walls by hemlock logs. From the numerous " claims for guarding prisoners" it is sur- mised that this jail was not much used. Indeed the early sheriff's declared it unfit for human beings, and occasionally employed the prisoners in the business affairs of the jailor. It is said, but not fully credited, that Wmn. Armstrong fastened one Cottrell, arrested for numerous thefts, with a chain and padlock to a whisky barrel. At any rate, the prisoner served the sheriff as bar- tender and ferryman for some time, and served himself so good a turn that on com- ing to trial the jury acquitted him in the face of the most explicit evidence of his guilt. So marked was this action of the jury that it was for some time afterward
sufficient to show that a man had been on the Cottrell jury to exclude him from the jury box.
The old jail was subsequently sold for fourteen dollars, when the brick was erect- ed. This was built at a cost of $3,- 237.13, and accepted April 17, 1855. On July 14, 1875, after the brick jail had been officially and repeatedly called a nui- sance the Board of Supervisors decided to build a new one, the result of which decision is the present stone structure, erected at a cost of $16,190.60, and accepted Sept. 14. 1876.
The last, and perhaps the least satis- factory of the county institutions is the " Poor Farm." The first farm consisted of 160 acres (the N. E. quarter section No. 24, 33, 6), in Norman township. This land cost $2,400; was high land, and while not presenting its greatest attractions to the road, was considered well adapted to the purposes for which it was bought. It was found to be too large for practical purposes, and portions of the farm were sold. Later it was thought a smaller farm could be made nearer self-supporting, and another farm was finally bought October 27, 1879; eighty acres (the south half of S. W. quar- ter, section No. 33, 7) in Wanponsee were bought at forty-five dollars an acre. This selection was very much opposed, and a special committee appointed by the Board after examining the property reported as follows: " It is too low and flat, with no building place above level of prairie, and no drainage suitable for such a cellar as the wants of a poor-house require-wholly unfit for the erection of such buildings as this county will require in after years." The purchase was persevered in, however, and
147
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
subsequently a brick building erected at a cost of $3,800. What remained of the old farm was sold for $2,510.
Under the statute of 1849 the probate business was transferred to the county judge, while that of the commissioners was transferred to a county court composed of
a county judge and two associates. At the election in April of the following year the township organization was adopted by a vote of the people, and under this arrange- ment the first Board of Supervisors organ- ized June 12, 1850.
-
CHAPTER IV .*
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT-EARLY SOCIETY-RISE OF CHURCH AND SCHOOL-INDIAN TRAILS AND EARLY ROADS-RAILROADS AND THE CANAL-THE NEWSPAPERS.
"THE pioneers of Grundy County came principally from southern Ohio, with a number from the southern States, and later, a few from Pennsylvania and other more eastern States. Most of these families had been pioneers in older settlements in the States from which they came, or had grown up in frontier colonies which their fathers had founded, and had been trained in the stern school of experience to meet and conquer the difficulties of a new country. But the problem licre, nevertheless, pre- sented features and difficulties entirely different from that with which their earlier experience had acquainted them. The timber that skirted the margin of the river and sent out spurs here and there along the banks of the creeks and ravines, divided the vast open sea of grass and flowers into two great divisions. On either side the broad expanse of verdant meadow, marked here and there by a stray clump of under- sized trecs, stretehed away from the river, unbounded save by the horizon, and the pioneer with his little retinue of wagons was lost in this luxuriant wilderness like a convoy of sloops in mid ocean.
A party of pioneers came on foot by way of Chicago, in May, 1835, and one of them presents this picture: + " There had been
heavy showers for several days, and the low prairie around Chicago was more like a lake than dry land. For seven miles before reaching Berry's Point, the water was from three to fifteen inches deep, through which we worked our weary way. When within about two miles of dry land, one of our companions gave ont, and two of us, one on either side, placed our arms around and under his opposite arm, while he placed his on our shoulders, and thus we bore him through.
"The next day we walked about forty miles to Plainfield. It gave us our first view of a rolling Illinois prairie. We strained our eyes to take in its extent, till the effort became painful. We descanted again and again upon its beanty and rich- ness, and wondered why such a country had remained so long in the hands of the sav- age. It was a wonderful country. All was new. Strange sights and sounds greeted us. The piping note of the prairie-squirrel, as he dropped from his erect position, and sought the protection of his hole close by our path; the shrill notes of the plover, scattered in countless numbers, fitfully starting and running over the prairie; the constant roaring of the prairie cock; the mad scream of the crooked-bill curlew, as we approached its nest; the distant whoop of the crane; the pump sounding note of
* By J. H. Battle.
. +Elmer Baldwin's Hist. of La Salle County, p. 124.
i
149
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
the bittern; the lithe and graceful forms of the deer, in companies of three to five, , lightly bounding over the swells of the prairie ;- it seemed a new ereation that we had entered."
Every immigrant supplied his own means of reaching his destined home. The pioneer from Pennsylvania, Ohio, or the Southern States, betrayed his nativity and prejudiee in the schooner-shape wagon box, the stiff tongue, the hinder wheels donble the size of the forward ones, and elosely coupled to- gether, the whole drawn by a team of four or six horses which were guided by a single line in the hands of a teamster riding the " nigh wheeler." His harness was of gi- gantie proportions. What between the massive leather breeching, the heavy hames and collar, the immense housing of bear skin npon the hames, the heavy iron trace chains, and the ponderons double-tree and whiffle- trees, the poor beasts seemed like humanity in a chain gang, or some terrible monsters that human ingenuity could seareely fetter seenrely. The eastern immigrant, from New York or farther east, was marked as far as his earavan conld be seen, by a long coupled, low boxed, two horse wagon, pro- vided with a seat, from which with double lines the driver guided his lightly harnessed pair of horses. There was about each part of the outfit, evidences of the elose calcu- lation of means to an end, and an air of utility which left no room for doubt as to the purpose of the maker in every part of it. This strange contrast in these early outfits suggests that they may not unfitting- ly be taken as types of two civilizations that met here on this middle ground, and in many a sterner eontest waged an "irre- pressible confliet." In the end, these
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.