History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 37

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Illinois > Iroquois County > History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 37

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The geological facts are too meager to furnishı much popular information. The county was once covered by the waters of lake Kankakee. It is supposed that this lake had a southeastern outlet into tlie Wabashı valley before the present channel of the Kankakee river was worn through the sand ridges above and the deposits of rock below. The ancient southern outlet of lake Michigan through this county was grooved out by the glacier which crossed the present route of the Kankakcc a little above Momence, and whose width at that point has been set down at seven miles. Continuing not far from the state line, the glacier borc southwest from the north line of the county, until it reached thic Spring Creek valley, where its course was changed again to a more southcrly direction. No rock is near the surface, and no other mincrals of any value exist. In boring for water, coal has been found on several occasions in the eastern, central and northern sections of the county. It is reported that in sinking a well recently near the mouth of Langham creek, a vein of coal two feet thick was struck at a depth of fifty-eight feet; and

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

twenty feet lower another three feet thick. It is further stated that on the farm of Alexander Sword, Jr., in Iroquois township, coal was found two and one-half feet in thickness, ninety-two feet below the surface. It is said that east of Watseka coal has been discovered, but not in available quantity.

The artesian water found in this region is an interesting feature of the geological formation of this part of the country. Wells are obtained at a depth varying from twenty-five to 150 feet. Thongh his reasoning concerning the water-supply was limited to a compara- tively small area, Thomas Lindsey, of Onarga township, was the first to bore with an intelligent theory and distinct purpose. Until 1854 none but surface wells were made. These customarily failed in the summer season, and the deprivation suffered was always serious, especially as cattle had to drink from stagnant pools, and, swallowing leeches, were attacked with what people called "bloody murrain," a disease which popularly covers a multitude of disorders. Much stock was lost every year; and more than this, the health of the country was greatly affected. Lindsey bored in the bottom of two wells with so much success as to set others to thinking that they could get water by boring from the top. The first to experiment in this way was Solomon Sturgis, whose farin lies just west of Gilman. A man named Hook, from Zanesville, Ohio, did the boring. He obtained water at a depth of 100 feet. It rose to the top of the ground, but did not flow. He next bored in the railroad well at Onarga, and at something over 100 feet a vein of great strength was reached. Samuel Harper, two miles east of Onarga, not long after- ward got the tools to his place, and obtained a stream at eighty-five feet. This was the first flowing well in Iroquois county. A reser- voir was excavated eight and one-half feet deep, and five feet in diameter, in the bottom of which the augur was sunk. Mr. Harper states that it filled in eight minutes. The roaring of this well intro_ duced grateful sounds and substantial music to the ears of the family. It was regarded with curiosity and wonder, and attracted people · from far and near, by stage and by rail. The newspapers spread word of it, for it harbingered not relief alone, but great possibilities also. The tools next went to Hamilton Jefferson's, and a good well was made on his farm. The third, obtained for Addison Harper, was remarkable for its force. John Oxford's, in the same neighbor- hood, was also very strong, "yielding," according to the editor of "Emery's Journal of Agriculture," who had visited it during the period of greatest interest, " some five or six barrels per minute." He adds, concerning Addison Harper's, that " the water had gradually

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found its way up the outside of the pipe, coming up with great force, excavating a hole some thirty feet deep and wide, the pipe sinking down into it. So threatening was it that, fearing for the safety of his house near by, he removed it some distance off. Its fury sub- sided, and it now flows quietly as usual from the large pool made." All this occurred in the summer and fall of 1855. Probably there are now not fewer than two thousand of these wells in the county. The artesian region is about twenty miles wide, and not far from forty miles long. Its direction is northwest and southeast, and extends from Ford county across Iroquois into Indiana.

. M. H. Messer, Esq., ex-county surveyor, has contributed the fol- lowing facts in regard to the United States surveys in Iroquois county : Townships 24, 25, 26 and 27, except range 10, east of the latter, were surveyed by the United States' surveyor in 1822. Will- iam S. Hamilton, Elias Rector, and Enoch Steen were three of the surveyors. Townships 28, 29, and range 10 in 27 were sur- veyed in 1833 and 1834. William Lee, D. Ewing, J. B. McCall, Edward Smith and Dan Beckwith were engaged in this work. Some of the townships were erroneously surveyed by McCall, and he resurveyed them, erecting new corners, but neglecting to demolish the first ones, though he had been directed so to do. This accounts for the double corners. Some of the town and range lines were surveyed twice, resulting in the discovery that many of the corners were not properly located, but no corrections were made. Range 10 west, along the state line, was surveyed by Perrin Kent, in 1834 and 1842. The state line was surveyed in 1834, by Sylvester Sibley, and resurveyed in 1842 by Julius Hulanicki. The mile mounds made by Sibley were found by the last survey to be from six to twelve rods over a mile apart. Ewing was a major in the Black Hawk war, afterward a major-general of militia, and governor of Illinois during the last fifteen days of November, 1832.

Iroquois county was first settled in the winter of 1821-2 by Gur- don S. Hubbard, an Indian trader, then in the employ of the Ameri- can Fur Company (John Jacob Astor & Co.). He was accompanied by Noel Vasseur, who was in his service, and continued so to be for twelve years. Hubbard came from Mackinaw, coasting Lake Michi- gan in a batteau of ten tons burden, and ascending the Chicago river, crossed the portage to the DesPlaines. Floating down this and ascending the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers, he reached the present site of Old Middleport. On the north side of the river, about one mile above this point, at the east end of the bend, where there was a small Indian village, he fixed his headquarters and established a

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

trading-post./ He stopped at this point but one winter, when he removed up the river the next fall to a place afterward called Bunkum,* at the same time extending his operationis over a wide territory. Besides the post at Bunkum, he had one on the Kan- kakee, ten miles above the state line, one on the Embarrass, another on the head waters of the Little Wabash, and two others still farther south. His custom was to open his trading house at the beginning of the hunting season - about the first of October - and to close it at the beginning of May. The Indians hunted on the Iroquois and its tributaries during October and November, and then went off south on the Vermilion, Okaw, Embarrass and Wabaslı rivers, where otter, bear, mink, deer, beaver, raccoon, muskrat and panther were more plenty. In the spring they returned. With Indian packing horses Hubbard transported his furs to Chicago, and from that place by boat to Mackinaw, where he spent the summer, return- ing in the fall with goods for traffic.

As early as 1826 he preëmpted a tract of land at Bunkum, and inclosed and cultivated 80 acres. This he entered when it came into market in 1831. It is now known as the Dunning farm, from the next owner, and was the first one improved in Iroquois county. He had a farmer named Allen Baxter, who after the first year got married in Indiana. His wife was the first white woman who settled the county. Hubbard himself wedded an Indian princess called in Wach-e-kee, the daughter of a Pottawatomie, chief of the Kankakee band (name unknown), by an Indian mother of Illinois Indian descent, named Monoska. She was a niece of the chief Tamin. She was dignified and intelligent, and declined to mingle with the common herd of red-skins, and was anxious to learn the manners and customs of her more favored pale sisters. Her complexion was light, and her form small, lithe, slender and comely. A romantic story is told of how she became endowed with royal distinction, but it is only a tradition. By this union Hubbard greatly strength- ened his relations with the Indians, and secured their favor and pro- tection. He acquired unbounded influence among them, and it is known that he placed more reliance on the fidelity and friendship of the Pottawatomie chief, Was-sus-kuk, than on that of any white man. By the influx of white population Hubbard found himself confronted with the alternative of divorcing his Indian wife or of losing caste

* In a letter to B. F. Shankland, Esq., dated December 21, 1878, Mr. Hubbard said that he transferred his post to Bunkum in the fall of 1825. This was probably an inadvertence. He has since stated to the writer, and repeated the same in a letter to M. H. Messer, Esq., that he was located at Middleport but one winter.

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

with his own civilized race. He could but choose, and his choice was such as most men would have made under the circumstances. He has said that she was his constant delight, and that it was not done without a struggle between affection and expediency. Sometime after their separation slie became the wife of Noel Vasseur. Hubbard had some Frenchinen in his service at Bunkum. Toussaint Bleau was one, and probably Isadore Chabert another. Bleau displayed in a marked degree the volatility of the French character. He married a daughter of Dr. Asa R. Palmer, of Danville, and sister to the late Rev. Charles R. Palmer, so long a resident of this county. Bleau was thrown from his carriage near the old McCormack House in Danville and killed.

Hubbard followed lis trafficking as described until 1832, when he discontinued all his posts except the one at Bunkumn. He liad a store at Danville where he kept an assortment of goods, mostly for the whites ; but in 1834 he closed up his business at both places and set- tled permanently in Chicago, where he is now living in full health and abundant prosperity. Hubbard's pack-trains inade a standard route (known as Hubbard's trail) from Danville to Chicago, which gathered the travel for many miles on either side, as far south as Vincennes. It entered the county on the south at the line between sections 34 and 35, town 24, range 12 (Lovejoy township), and kept due north to a point one mile south of the north line of Milford township; there it made an angle and bore straight to Montgomery (Bunkum) ; from thence it went in a less direct line to Momence. Speaking of this himself in a letter to B. F. Shankland, Esq., Mr. Hubbard says: "The legislature of Illinois caused a state road to be laid out in 1834, and designated by milestones, from Vincennes to Chicago. The commissioners who lo- cated it and planted the stones tried hard, so they informed me, to get a straighter line and better ground than the 'Hubbard trail,' but were forced to follow with slight deviation my old track, which was on the dividing ridges between the waters flowing into the Wabash on the east and the Illinois on the west. Though mile-stones were planted, yet Hubbard's trail kept the principal travel until both it and the state road were abandoned and fenced in, new county roads being laid out to take their place."

/The actual permanent settlement of Iroquois county was simulta- neously begun at two points-Milford and Bunkum-in the spring of 1830. The Courtright brothers (Isaac, George and Richard) and Jolin H. Miller, all from Fountain county, Indiana, formed one party and came and settled at Bunkum. Hezekialı Eastburn came from Ohio. William Hanan, Elijah Newcombe, and the widow McCulloch came with their families. Benjamin Fry, Benjamin Thomas and James

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY. i

Crozier, single men, came with the Newcombes and McCullochs. Additions were made to the community in the fall. Prominent among those who came the next year were John Hougland and Reuben Critchfield. A tavern was kept at this place on the south side of the river by Dr. Timothy Locy, in 1831. Probably this was the first house of entertainment opened in the county. Montgomery was laid out for the proprietor, Richard Montgomery, May 9, 1835, by James H. Rees, who was deputized by Dan. Beckwith, county surveyor of Ver- milion county. It was situated on the south side of the river. Con- cord was surveyed also by Mr. Rees as deputy of Jonas Smith, surveyor of Iroquois county, in May, 1836. Henry Moore was the proprietor. This was on the north bank opposite Montgomery. The locality, including these two places, has always been known as "Bunkum." The origin of the name is traced to nothing better than an insignifi- cant circunistance, from which vulgar designations often start, and by use become fixed in every-day speech./

In the spring of 1830 the following persons settled in the vicinity of Milford : Samuel Rush, Hiram Miles, James Singleton, Daniel Barbee, Abram Miller, Joseph Cox, Joseph Reading, and a colored man. Miles and Singleton staid but a short time after the departure of the Indians ; they retreated also to the primeval solitudes. In the fall Anthony Stanley came from Ohio with a family of four sons : William, John, Micajah and Isaac; and two daughters : Rebecca and Elizabeth. The two first named sons were married. William Cox and William Pickerell arrived with their families; these and the Stanley's were Quakers. In the spring of 1831 this little congregation of Friends built the first house of worship ever erected in Iroquois county. It was a small cabin made of round logs, and was used as well for a school-house as for a meeting-house. Jefferson Mounts, from Indiana, James Osborne, John Hunnel, Jesse Amos and Lydia Parker, a widow, with her family, came also in the fall. A few new-comers appeared in the spring of 1831; Samuel McFall, afterward one of the first county commissioners, being of the number. Shortly after his arrival Pickerell built a corn- cracker, dignified with the name of mill, and until laid out in 1836, the place was called Pickerell's Mill-whence the name of Milford.

Early in 1834 a new settlement was begun on Upper Spring creek, in the vicinity of Del Rey. Jesse Amos moved over from Sugar creek, and was soon joined by John Miller from Covington, Indiana. In the fall Ira Lindsey, James Smith and Abram Lehigh, from Virginia, the latter living at this time on the Wabash, located in the same neigh- . borhood. Lehigh did not bring his family till the beginning of the next year. Ash Grove was settled in 1834 by Lewis Roberts, brother

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

of Bishop Roberts, and his son-in-law, John Nunamaker. They were soon followed by John Hunnel, who had emigrated to Sugar creek in 1830.

The population of the county gathered for many years, even down to the building of the Illinois Central railroad in 1853, in proximity to the timber. On the west side of Sugar creek, about three miles above the month, was the Longshore settlement. Mahlon and James Longshore, Samuel Keene, Alexander Wilson, William Stanley and David Clanalian were some of the early settlers in this neighborhood. The Rush settlement, further up the creek, was begun by Samuel Rush in 1830. Chauncey Webster, Jolin Body, Samuel Williams and Fleming located in that vicinity. On the Iroquois river, between Middleport and Bunkum, Texas became a place of some importance because of the crossing at that point, and the mill erected there by Isaac Courtright at a later day. The Pierce settlement, three or four miles below Middleport, had among the first settlers the Pierce broth- ers (William, John and David) Andrew Layton and James Wilson. The Flesher settlement was commenced on Lower Spring creek, in the spring of 1835, by Levi Thompson, who had come from Indiana and located on Sugar creek, below Milford, in the fall of 1831. Jede- diah Darby settled there a little later in the season. In the fall Jolin Flesher came with his family. Next year William Huckins, Jacob O. Feather, David Wright and Jefferson Mounts,-the latter from Sugar creek,-joined the advance settlers. Still farther down the river the town of Plato was surveyed and platted in May, 1836. This was when the internal improvement craze was at meridian height. Extrav- agant and delusive expectations were formed concerning this enter- prise. It was advertised in glowing colors in the Chicago and La- Fayette papers ; immense maps and posters were distributed in eastern cities, showing the whole landing at " Harbor Creek" lined with boats unloading and receiving merchandise. Lots were sold at fabulous prices ; many persons in New York city investing in them. The pro- prietors nearly realized their ambition to secure the county-seat when it was removed from Bunkum. James Smith, an accomplished gentle- man, having energy and capacity of a high order, who lived on Upper Spring creek, was the chief promoter of this schieme. He died sud- denly in September, 1839, at the age of thirty-two. The death of Smith was likewise the death of Plato.

The Jones settlement, in the south angle of the river and Beaver creek, was begun in 1837 by Henry and Seth Jones. These, with Robert Hester and family, who soon joined them, were from Meigs county, Ohio. Shobar, Elliott, Peter Lowe and Simon Maybee located afterward in that section.

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

A colony of Norwegians, consisting of some thirty families, settled on the north side of Beaver creek about 1835. Their cabins extended three or four miles up stream from section 22, in range 12. The lead- ing man lived and died on the J. S. Oxford place. Two family names were Oleson and Waity. They not being seasoned nor careful in their habits, sickness broke out among them to an alarming extent, and before two years as many as fifty had died. The diseases were mostly ague and bilious fever. One burying-place was near Clark's, on the west side of a small branch running south ; and the other in a round grove a mile northeast of the Vankirk crossing. Most of the survivors moved to Fox river, Wisconsin.

Before passing further it will be well to give briefly the origin of the second great highway which traversed the county. As once all roads led to Rome, so in the early history of this county all roads led to Chicago. In 1830 Ben Butterfield, living on Stony creek, near Danville, went by way of Bunkum to Hickory creek and the Des- Plaines river, and made a selection for a home near Lockport, just above Joliet. Two families had recently settled in that section. He returned for his family, and in company with the two men living on Hickory creek, who had come back to Danville for supplies, he started December 7. It rained and snowed, and was very cold during the trip of nine days. He sent his ox-teams back to Danville to winter, keeping only a horse and three head of cattle; the latter he wintered on browse. They came through the winter in very poor condition. The next April he went back for his stock, this time trying a new route, driving a yoke of oxen and accompanied by two men and a boy. At Bourbonnais Grove lie was advised by an old Indian that, as the Iroquois river " was a fool river that did not know enough to go down when it was once up," to go around it till he struck Spring creek, then to follow that until he could find a crossing. Near the Barden place, on Lower Spring creek, they were beset with a severe snow storm. The stream was high and they could not cross to the woods beyond, so they lay three days sheltered by the bank of the creek, suffering much from cold and hunger, waiting for the storm to abate and the water to sub- side. Finally after much difficulty they got over, and made their way to Stony creek without further incident. On the journey back lie kept the same way, driving six yoke of oxen, two horses, twenty-five sheep, and twenty head of cows and young cattle. His son writes that " tliis was when he made what was called Butterfield's trail." When the Sac war broke out, the next spring, he moved back to Stony creek, where lie remained till the following spring, when, the war having ended, he returned with his family to his home on the DesPlaines.

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

The track thus made became the route for an immense travel all the way from the Okaw river. This trace diverged from Hubbard's at Bicknel's Point, and crossed the south line of this county at a point some three miles west of Hoopeston. It passed through Pigeon Grove and crossed Spring creek at a place called by the early settlers " the Gap," about two miles northeast of Buckley. It followed the general course of the creek to a point half a mile east of the Barden Farm, where it turned north, east of, but nearly on, the range line; then proceeded east of north, leaving Plato about a mile to the right. It passed Prairie creck half a mile west of L'Erable, and in a direction nearly north from there struck Langhan, which was then called " White Woman." On account of high banks it followed up and crossed that stream near the head of the timber, about a mile east of the Central railroad. From here in a northeast course it ran to Sammon's Point, a mile and a half below the county-line. After improvements were begun at Plato a detour was made to that place. The Kankakee was forded at Haw- kins', which corresponds to the lower end of Bourbonnais Grove. From here it went to Bloom's Grove, Twelve Mile Grove and Hickory creek; at the latter point it forked, both trails leading to Chicago, one of them by way of Cooper's Grove and Blue Island, intersecting Hub- bard's trace; the other by way of Joliet. Later travel made several other routes from the Kankakee. Butterfield moved to Hadley, and after that to a place called Bloom, on the Chicago and Vincennes state road, where he kept a " Hoosier tavern " twenty-one years. He died in Franklin county, Iowa, April 28, 1878, aged eighty-three.

In May, 1832, the mail carrier from Chicago, when this side of the Kankakee, saw some Indians pursuing him (which proved afterward to be only for a friendly purpose), and being prepared by the hostilities now commenced in the Rock river country to take fright on the- merest occasion, fled to Danville, passing through Bunkum and Mil- ford. He daslied into the latter settlement hatless and with panting horse, stopping only long enough to get something for himself and animal to eat, when he pressed on spreading the alarm as lie went. The settlers on Sugar creek were panic-stricken and started at once for the Wabash. About fifty were in the party. When they had gone two or three miles a lialt was made, and a council held to decide on the best course. It was near night, and one woman, it is said, more self-possessed than the rest of the crowd, proposed that they should wait in a plum thicket near by until morning, when they could know with more certainty whether Indians were really in pursuit, and have daylight for travel. But she was overruled, and the journey continued throngh the night. After they passed the creek at the regular cross-

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

ing, four miles above Milford, the darkness seemed to accelerate their flight. A limited number of horses and wagons were in the company. The sloughs were full of water, the ground wet, and the grass tall and tangled. The men and women carried the smaller children in their arıns, and tried hard to keep their families together as they hurried along through the darkness; but there was a good deal of confusion, and their anxiety was greatly excited as they were continually getting separated. There were ten of the Webster family. The oldest daughter, giving out with fatigue, was taken on behind by a peddler who had abandoned his wagon in the settlement. Sometime in the night it was discovered that the Webster family were missing, except the daughter riding with the peddler, and a younger child carried by Clement Thomas. It was easy for imagination to picture them massa- cred, and that became the general belief as word of their absence was passed around. The fleeing party reached Parish's Grove next morn- ing early ; some stopped there, some went to Pine creek, others to the Wabash. Mrs. Webster had fainted, and while the family tarried to restore her, the others, not knowing what had transpired went on, so they became separated. Others coming up the Websters fell in with them, and another company thus formed went to Williamsport. It was sometime before the family were again united.

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History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 37

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180