USA > Illinois > Grundy County > History of Grundy County, Illinois > Part 36
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pay for adjoining them. But when these purchasers were satisfied there was a great deal of land left which was subsequently picked up by speeulators, who held it at five and ten dollars per aere. These prices were so high as to discourage immigration, and land dealers resorted to every deviee to stimulate the rage for speeulation. The infatuation seemed to be contagious; eor- ner lots, elaims, pre-emptions and floats, were the chief subjeet of conversation. Mr. Baldwin thus describes the situation: " A lodger at any of the riekety hotels at that day, would have to sleep in a room containing four or five beds, and from the bargains and contracts made by the lodg- ers before going to sleep, might well im- agine himself on 'Change, or in Wall street, New York, and his companions all mil- lionaires. The writer ealled at a log cabin toward evening of a rainy day, where some half a dozen farmers were assembled, who had evidently engaged in high speculation during the day. One of the number, ad- dressing himself to me, said, as he slapped his hand very complacently on his thigh; ' I have made ten thousand dollars to-day, and I will make twice that to-morrow; ' and I learned from further conversation with his companions, that he had been the least sueeessful one in the company. Towns and villages were laid out at al- most every erossroad, and some, where there had never been any road. I set out some small apple trees on my farin, the only ones to be proeured, and stuck a stake by each; a stranger eoming past, inquired the name of the town I had laid out."
Kankakee City was an outgrowth of this speenlative mania and was pretentious enough to satisfy the most exaggerated an-
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
nouncements. In its paliniest days its pop- ulation did not reach seventy-five souls, yet it had ten publie squares, with public parks and broad streets enough to have formed a nuelens for another New York City. The plat with its numerous ad- ditions covered about two thousand acres, and lots were sold at anetion in Chicago and New York City, and thousands upon thousands of dollars were invested in this midsummer night's dream. In all the prominent real estate centers were seen highly ornamented plats of this city, bean- tiful with magnificent buildings, and busy with the traffic of capacious warehouses, and crowded steamboat wharves. In its early history, Mr. Beard, the projector of this city, was offered $35,000 for his prop- erty, which he rejected. But the crash of 1837 eame, and all this paper prosperity passed away like morning dew. Emigra- tion almost entirely ceased; the work on the canal, which had brought a certain fic- titions prosperity to this region, barely struggled on, supported by State scrip.
Wheat went down from two dollars per bushel to fifty cents; pork from twenty- five dollars per barrel to one dollar per hundred; corn to ten cents per bushel, and all this in depreciated serip or store goods at a profit of one hundred per cent. For many years the large territory em- braeed in the limits of Kankakee City was assessed as lots and thousands of dol- lars were loaned npon this property as security, but the burden became too great and the land was finally sold for the ac- eumulated taxes, and whatever titles are now held to this property are based upon tax sales. This famous city has long since reverted back to rustic uses, and serves the purposes of the farm, none the less sedately for having at an early day put on city airs.
NOTE .- The site of Kankakee City, between the forks of the Illinois River, is now a part of Au Sable township, being assigned to that township because the facilities for crossing the Desplaines River are better than for crossing the Kankakee.
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CHAPTER XVII .*
ERIENNA TOWNSHIP, 33 NORTH, RANGE 6 EAST-CHANGES OF BOUNDARIES-EARLY SET- TLEMENT-HORROM CITY-CLARKSON-NORMAN-SURFACE FEAT- URES-PIONEERS-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
T, THE Congressional township 33 north,
range 6 east, is divided into nearly equal parts by the Illinois River, which en- ters the township a little north of the mid- dle point of its eastern boundary, and flows southwestwardly through its territory. The difficulty of passing the river for the pur- poses of township business, has enforced the natural division by political separation, and though one township by the original survey, these portions have always been in different precinets and borne different names.
Erienna is the elder of these twin town- ships, and is situated north of the river. The northwest corner is a high plateau, ending on the river front near the western bonndary, in an abrupt descent of some eighty fect. From this point the second bottom or bench approaches nearly to the river brink, leaving space for barely two or three hundred acres of alluvial bottom lands. The margin of the platean from the western line of the precinct follows the trend of the river bank, its margin being marked by the common road north of the railroad till it reaches the eastern line of section 10, where it eurves northwardly out of the precinet. South of this line of the highland, with the exception of an oval ridge on which Mr.
Hoge's residence is placed. the surface of Erienna is principally a flat sandy soil, un- derlaid with a coal deposit. Long Point Creek rising in the northwest corner of the precinct, furrows through the platean and flows to the canal, the course of which it follows out of the precinct under the name of Rat Run. Nettle Creek-the English for Little Mazon of the Indians-rises in the lower ground of the eastern part of the pre- einet, and takes an eastern course into Mor- ris, where, with a sudden turn south, it joins the Illinois. Along the stream the surface is considerably broken and elothed with some of the finest walnut timber, be- sides other varieties, to be found in the county. On the highlands the timber was of a scrubby character, a certain indication of the stiff elay soil found here. The greater part of the farmers devote their lands to the cultivation of corn, though Messrs. Hoge & IIolderman, who own very extensive farms here, pasture large herds of cattle.
The first settler in Erienna, and one of the earliest in the county, was Isaac Iloge. Ife was a native of Fauquier County, Vir- ginia, and shrewdly foreseeing that money early invested in Illinois lands would make a large and sure return for the investment, eame here very early and bonght his lands in this township at the first sale before
* By J. H. Battle.
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
there were any other settlers save Marquis, perhaps. He was a young nnmarried man, with considerable capital and impressed with the general belief that the prairie would be taken np only where timber was to be had, entered the most of his lands in the timbered section along the Nettle Creek. Other members of his fam- ily settled in Nettle Creek township and for some time after his purchase there was no cabin in Erienna to indicate the pres- ence of the white man. Soon afterward he married and moved onto his land here, and adding to his possessions by further purchase from time to time has now one of the large farms of the county. An- other large farm owned by A. Holderman occupies the larger part of the central por- tion of the precinct, which with that of Mr. Hoge's is devoted largely to pasturage for cattle. The large herds owned by Mr. Holderman at an early date were as remark- able a sight as a herd of buffaloes, and their trails to the watering places during the summer were said to be as conspicuous as those of the buffaloes on the plains. Mr. Ilolderman, however, was an early settler in Kendall County and bonght land here somewhat later.
Columbus Pinney was perhaps the first actual resident of Erienna. He was a native of New York State and came out by the lakes to Chicago and from thence to Marseilles. In the Spring of 1836, he came to section 12, where Datus Kent had put up a log house and barn for Kimball of Marseilles. Here Pinney kept the stage change and hotel which is now known as " Castle Danger." The cabin is destroyed but the stable still serves the purposes of a barn, though it stands on a new location.
The origin of its later name is very ob- scure. After staying here three years Pin- ney removed to Aurora and the cabin was empty for awhile. It was subsequently inhabited for a short time when it was left untenanted again. It was used occasion- ally by wayfarers, and perhaps horse thieves and prairie bandits found it a con- venient place to stay for a night, but no authentic incident can be learned in which the name could take its risc. Its name is well fixed, however, and generally nsed, and is probably the outgrowth of the natural respect for the mysterious.
In 1840, O. Cone, a native of Jefferson County, New York, came by the lakes to Detroit. From that point, with his family, he came in wagons across the country to Marseilles, where his brother-in-law, Kim- ball, was engaged in superintending some public improvements. Cone remained here until 1840, when he rented a farm of Mr. Hoge, on section 6, 33, 7. He was subse- quently elected sheriff of the county, and afterward retired to a farm which he pur- chased on section 2, 33, 6. Messrs. Ken- nedy and Kendrick were attracted from Ohio by the canal work, and on the stop- ping of operations, settled, in 1842, on sec- tion 7. About 1845 or '6, Peter Griggs settled on section 3, and about the same time Abram Holderman came into the precinct. In 1848, Charles Moody came in from Marseilles and settled near where the road crosses the canal on section 15. After this the settlement of the precinct rapidly increased. The completion of the canal brought in a large number of persons seeking a home, speculators, tired of hold- ing property which did not appreciate fast enough to more than mect the expense of
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
taxes and other charges, began to sell, and the settlement soon became general.
Horrom City was the name of an ambi- tions plat of ground which was staked out in 1836, by Dr. HIorrom, who originally settled sonth of the river. It did not prove a failure, because it never had any promise of snecess. A short-lived stage route passe.l near it, but beyond the imagination of its projector, the location had no relation to it, or anything tangible. Clarkson was the original name of the location of Castle Danger. Kimball, who was interested in the stage line, hoped through the influence of this enterprise to build up a village which should become the county seat, but fate de- eided in favor of Morris, and Clarkson did not mature. During the construction of the canal a number of temporary shanties gathered about the old log cabin, but they soon passed away, leaving it solitary.
In - the precinct was extended on the cast side to the corporation limits of the county seat. This was done through the influence of the farmers in this part of the county, to avoid the taxation which the ex- tension of the city limits in that direction would involve. This does no injustice to Morris, as there is land remaining in that precinet on which the county capital may expand into a very considerable town.
NORMAN.
This precinct, abutting upon the south margin of the Illinois River, is probably the best timbered and most broken portion of Grundy County. The high land ap- proaches very close to the river bank, leav. ing not more than five hundred acres of bottom lands on the whole river front. The high, broken land in the northwestern cor-
ner of Wauponsee extends into the eastern border of Norman, and forms in this pre- cinet quite a picturesque landscape along the road that enters it from the northeast. A peculiar elevation on Bills' Run at this point is a striking freak of nature, or, as some of its peculiarities suggest, an im- portant relic of the Mound Builders. It is a circular mound, about seventy-five feet high, and some two hundred feet diameter at the base. It stands at the head of a little bayou, isolated from the line of sur- rounding bluff's, save for the connection of a narrow causeway, which by a gentle de- scent and aseent bridges the intervening valley. It is entirely bare of trees, save an oak which grows out of the side, half way toward the summit. No excavation has. been attempted in this mound, and it is doubtful whether its peculiarities would warrant any considerable expenditure of time and money with the hope of making valuable discoveries, but the difficulty of assigning a plausible theory for its natural construction, has given rise to considerable speculation in regard to it. This is known as "Devil's Mound," and others of less note have a similar nomenclature, though with what appropriateness is perhaps diffi- eult to determine, unless one accepts the statement of the young man who suggested, " because we wonder how the devil it came here."
The middle portion of the river front is less broken, though the ground rises to the final "bench " quite abruptly, until the western third of the river line, where is found the roughest country in the county. Bills' Run, rising near the southern line, in the eastern part, flows north through this precinct and loses itself in the low
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
ground which borders the river. Hog Run takes a westerly course from the center of Norman and flows into the Illinois; and further west Armstrong Run, taking its source near the southern line, flows nearly direet north, and empties into the Illinois a little west of Hog Run. These streams are little more than prairie water-courses that serve to carry off the surplus water of the surface, and are dry a large part of the year. Their names are suggestive of their own origin. The timber is oak, hackberry, walnut and maple. The broken character of the country naturally protected the tim- ber, and the early settlers found here a good field for " foraging," which was largely in- dulged in at an early date. The soil is largely the black prairie mold, free from bowllers, and rather low and wet in the central parts, with rather strong clay lands on the high ground. The farmers are largely devoted to the exelusive cultivation of corn, and feed more of it to hogs than in other parts of the county. There is some stoek-raising, Mr. E. B. James having given considerable attention to the breed- ing of horses.
The first settler in this precinct was David Bunch, on the southeast quarter of seetion 21. Ile was a native of North Car- olina, but moved to Tennessee, and from thence came to Illinois, coming to Norman in the winter of 1834-5. It is probable that he was attraeted thither by the fine timber here, which had been bonght up by the speculators. There was a good market for logs or hewn timber at Ottawa and other points on the river, and as there was none to protect it, large quantities of it were stolen by early settlers, who felt justi- fied in these depredations by the fact that
- their holding this land prevented the settle- ment of the county. Mr. Bunch made the entting and rafting of this timber to market his principal business, and for some years made no effort to make a home here. Ile afterward cleared up a good farm, on which he lived many years. In the same year Datus Kent joined him here and went into the timber business on the same basis. IIe had his cabin on the south fraction of section 15, and built the log hotel across the river, which is now referred to as Cas- tle Danger. Kent was from the Sonth, and a winter or two was enough to satisfy him that he was out of his element, and left for Arkansas in 1837, leaving no farm im- provements. Henry Norman was another prominent settler, and came in abont 1839. He came from Brown County, Ohio, from where he came first to Braceville, about 1836, but subsequently eame to Norman and put up his cabin on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 25. Here he stayed until 1842, when he removed to Morris. His son, Thomas J. Norman, re- mained at the homestead, and was the first supervisor of the precinct under the action of the county in 1850. It is from him that the precinct takes its name. Dr. Timothy Horrom was an early settler here. He was one of that large class of persons who be- eame infected by the speculative mania. He settled on section 20, and with a large family of boys began to make a home. He was a peculiar man; had a taste for whis- ky, which was not uncommon in that day, but which led him into a great many escapades, and gained for him quite a rep- utation in the county. His mania for speculation led him to found Horrom City, on the other side of the river, a paper me-
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
tropolis, which passed through the common experience. He finally moved over to Erienna, where he died about 1860. John Sullivan, an Irishman, who was brought here by the work on the canal, came into Norman abont 1841. Ile came here with no capital but his hands and plenty of pluek, and settled on the southeast quarter of section 13, and has sinee improved a fine farm. In July, 1847, E. B. James came in from Kendall County. He was a native of Olio, and came to Kendall County a young man. Here he married, and a little later eame to Norman and settled on section 25. In 1848, the canal being finished, the lands rapidly came into market, and Norman shared in the tide of emigration which rap- idly filled up the county.
In forming any conception of frontier life, one is apt to be influenced by some preconceived arbitrary standard. The pioneer of to-day goes not into an unknown and unexplored wilderness. The enter- prising newspaper has been before him; the soil, the climate, the mineral resources, the agricultural advantages-the whole situation has been exhaustively mapped out, while railroads carry him forward with speed and comfort to the seene of his frontier labors. Nor do the modern ad- vantages cease here. Having fixed upon his field of operations, material ready framed to form his dwelling, improved ma- chinery to till the soil, and a century's ex- perience, unite to rob his experience of much of its difficulties, and to insure a speedily snecessful ontcome of his venture. In ten years he has surrounded himself with more of the Inxnries of civilization than the pioneers of Illinois possessed after twenty-five years of effort. And these rapid
strides of progress, it should be remem- bered, have been principally made within the last twenty-five years. While the pioneers of Illinois profited by the momen- tum acquired in the advance of the previ- ons century, it should not be forgotten that they have placed the weight of their expe .. rience and achievement with the forces that now accelerate the advance of the star of empire westward. The large purchases of timber lands by speculators in 1835 greatly retarded the settlement of this section of the State, and Grundy County was as un- developed and bare of civilizing resources in 1847 as many parts of the State ten years earlier. When Mr. James came to Nor . man, in this year, there were but five fan- ilies within its limits, and the general char- acter of the country was that of an untamed wilderness. The completion of the canal, however, was the signal for a mighty change, and from that time forward the county took on a rapid change.
The early settlers brought nothing with them but what the necessities of the situa- tion demanded. One wagon generally suf- fieed to bring the family, household furni- ture, farming implements, and frequently one or two months' supplies. It requires no great amount of consideration to be- lieve that luxuries, or even comforts, could find no place in such an outfit, and so the pioneer, after constructing a shelter for his family, found his skill and ingenuity taxed to their utmost to supply this deficiency. It was necessary to manufacture tables, chairs and bedsteads before they could be used, and some of the most striking inei- dents of frontier eabin life are founded upon this universal dearth of ordinary comforts. The early years of a new settle-
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
ment were occupied in supplying these wants and in subjeeting the land to the payment of its annual tribute. This ae- complished, the pioneer, ever mindful of the prosperity of his children and the con- servation of society, summoned the church and school to his aid.
The Fox River settlement was early made a base of operations by the Methodist church, and from a missionary plant estab- lished here, sent out its itinerants through- out the settlements on the upper part of the Illinois River. The first church organ- ization in Norman was a Protestant Meth- odist Church, which was built up under the adininistration of a Rev. Mr. Fowler. John Piatt and E. B. James, with three or four others, constituted the membership, which held its meetings in the different cabins about the neighborhood. Abont 1854, a Methodist Episcopal church was organized here, which gradually displaced the older society and held its meetings in a school- house which had been erected in the mean- time. The church subsequently held its meetings in the Baptist church building until 1870, when it ereeted a place of wor- ship on the southeast corner of section 35. This is a neat frame structure ereeted at a cost of about $2,800, and refleets eredit upon efforts of the church and the management, Rev. J. W. Odell and Mr. E. B. James, who were prominent in securing it.
The Baptist church was organized here about 1854, and found its main support in the families of Messrs. Haymond, Winters and Manley. This church used the one school-house in the precinct, alternating its services with those of the Protestant Meth- odist and the Methodist Episcopal churches,
until about 1862. Mr. Thos. Haymond, Lewis Winters and the Rev. Mr. Fosket, were prominent in securing a church build- ing at this time, and the frame building, thirty by fifty feet, situated on the south- east quarter of the northeast quarter of sec- tion 26, is due to their labors. It was erected at a cost of about $2,700.
The first school-house was a log struet- ure, built in 1853, at Bills' Point. The spot thus designated is a " point of timber" near the center of seetion 25, the name of which, it is said, originated with Jacob Claypool. Mr. Haymond relates a characteristic story of those times to the effect, that going to Mr. Claypool's on business one day he was accompanied by a friend from the East who was here on a visit. His friend naturally wore his " store elothes," and a linen shirt and collar. This was a remarkable innovation upon the eustom of Grundy County at that time and made a decided impression upon Mr. Claypool's mind. Business took the three persons to Bills' Run, when, Mr. Haymond being a new comer to Norman, inquired the origin of the name of the run. His reply was, that some years before a Mr. Bills who had been there, created such a sensation by his civilized attire, that his advent had been commemorated by giving his name to a ford, a stream, and this point of timber. In describing this hero, Mr. Claypool, pointing at Mr. Haymond's friend, said: "He wore a white shirt and collar, and was just such a dandy as he." It may therefore be accepted that the name of Bills' Run and Bills' Point is a frontier compliment to a white shirt and collar. It is certainly appropriate, if not signifi-
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
cant, that the first school-house was ereeted at this point. Here Miss Reniff taught the first school and was succeeded by Mrs. Stoutemyer. This primitive building has been succeeded by a modern structure and
the number multiplied, so that whether through the increase of education or the breaking down of frontier isolation, white shirts and collars are now by no means a rarity in Norman Precinct.
CHAPTER XVIII .*
MAZON TOWNSHIP-EARLY TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES-ITS PIONEERS-GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SETTLEMENT-NEW MAZON-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
ITOWNSHIP 32 north, range 7 east, is situated as near as may be, in the cen- ter of Grundy County. Its name, Mazon, was derived from the stream which bears this designation, a branch of which crosses a corner of the township. The Indian signi- fication of the word is nettle, and finds its appropriateness as a name for the town- ship in the fact that this plant was found in considerable numbers on the rich timber bottoms of this section. The Indians and early settlers turned this plant to a useful account, taking its fibre, in the absence of hemp, for twine and a coarse thread. The general surface is very level, with hardly variation enough to afford drainage for the surplus water. The soil is good, strong, black mnek, and will prove, when properly drained and cultivated, as good land as there is in the county, but it is readily affected by moisture, which it seems to hold for a long time. This characteristic is the bane of travelers and road-makers, and often causes the farmer expensive delays. The general drainage is toward the northeast, the township being marked by six water- courses running about a mile apart, in a generally parallel course. The principal oues are the Waupecan Creek, Johnny Run, Murray Sluice, and the West Fork of the Mazon. These are all insignificant streams
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