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 94
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The services of the Roman Catholics began here in 1869, on the arrival of Mr. J. D. Young to reside here. There were then a few scat- tering families of that faith in this vicinity, and services were usually held in Mr. Young's house. In 1870 Father Fanning, then of Gil- man, now of Fairbury, was appointed to the Crescent mission, and commenced holding regular monthly services here. The rapid set- tlement of the country around brought in many more families, and since then the priest-in-charge at Gilman has also been in charge of this mission. Since then Fathers Clemment, Bloome, Van Schwad- ler and McGar have officiated in turn. The church was built in 1874 ; size, 28×40, and cost $800 incomplete. About twenty-five' families worship here. The cemetery is at Gilman.
The Standard Lodge, No. 607, I.O.O.F., was organized February 9, 1876, with the following charter members: C. C. Kindt, N.G .; C. E. Barber, V.G .; L. W. Critzer, secretary; William Crecy and Fred. Klinkman. The lodge was instituted by deputy-master M.
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
F. Peters, and W. H. Egley was elected treasurer; S. N. Calkin, financial secretary; James Parker, warden. The lodge numbers thirty-three members, and is in a prosperous condition. Its meetings are Thursday night. The present officers are : James Parker, N.G .; S. N. Calkin, V.G .; T. B. Alberty, secretary ; R. E. Fidler, finan- cial secretary; W. H. Egley, treasurer ; C. E. Barber, lodge deputy.
The Crescent Lodge, No. 125, Good Templars, was organized December, 1876, with twenty-five charter members; S. G. Staples was worthy chief templar. The present officers are : J. J. Osborne, W.C.T .; Allie George, V.T .; Dora Smith, secretary ; Charles Pix- ley, financial secretary ; Nettie Cast, treasurer; Charles Calkin, marshal; Ida Barber, deputy marshal; Gracie Cast, inside guard ; W. H. Hart, outside guard; Rev. W. T. Kerr, chaplain; Mrs. A. Barber and Mrs. T. E. Kerr, right and left supporters ; C. E. Bar- ber, P.W.C.T. and lodge and county deputy. The lodge numbers forty-eight, is in good working order, and meets Saturday nights.
The Crescent City Horse Company was organized November 15, 1877, with James Parker as president ; G. S. Petero, vice-president ; A. J. Harwood, secretary ; William Flesher, captain. Its organiza- tion is uniform with other such companies in this part of the state and in other states. Its objects are, by concert of action and a be- coming secrecy in operations, to apprehend persons guilty of stealing horses and other stock, by following, or by turning out when called, and hunting such criminals. Their signs are so arranged as to be given at a great distance, and thus they are efficient in aiding mem- bers of other similar organizations whom they have never seen. This company numbers thirty-three. It meets the first Saturday of each alternate month. The present officers are : Owen Kern, president ; G. S. Petero, vice-president ; C. E. Barber, secretary and treasurer ; James Parker, captain ; R. B. Craig, S. N. Calkin, William Flesher, W .. B. Davis and C. L. Hart, lieutenants.
The Crescent City Cadets, Co. F, 9th Bat. Ill. National Guards, was organized September 15, 1878, by Capt. M. B. Gifford. It was mustered into state service by Maj. Peters, now colonel commanding the battalion, with sixty-four members. M. B. Gifford was captain ; B. Braderick, first lieutenant ; P. F. Dunn, second lieutenant ; R. A. Lower, orderly-sergeant; E. Dyer, second sergeant; Henry Flesher, third sergeant ; - - Brainard, fourth sergeant. Jacob Kaylar is color-guard of the batallion. The company is uniformed with United States regulation uniform, and armed with Enfield rifles. Capt. Gifford resigned his commission when he removed from the state.
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CRESCENT TOWNSHIP.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Samuel John, farmer, Woodland, was born in this county, in 1845, and has always lived here. His father, Lemuel, and his uncle, William, came to the county in 1830, and were among the very first to make their homes in this new country. Lemuel died in 1848, in Belmont township, leaving a widow and four children. Mrs. John died in 1867. Two of her children, Samuel and Mrs. Wilson, reside in Crescent town- ship. Samuel married, in 1874, Miss Sarah Strain, whose parents were among the first settlers in the county. Six years ago he came into this township to live, and has a fine farm of 200 acres, in section 36.
George W. Wilson, farmer, Woodland, was born on Christmas day, 1837, near Watseka, where his father, Alexander Wilson, lived at that time. Alexander came to this county in 1833, and took up the farm where Mrs. Aaron Jones lives, which he sold, and bought a farm east of Sugar creek, near to where Watseka now is, known as the Beckett Farm. He had been a merchant in Ohio, and carried on a tan-yard here. He went to Texas in 1855, but returned in 1860. George Wil- son has always lived in this county, and has been engaged in farming. In 1860 he married Miss Sarah J. John, whose parents had been among the earliest settlers in this county. Mr. John left four children : Thomas, Samuel, Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Clifton. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have seven children : Alexander T., Lemuel J., Texyanna, George F., Survenea, Sydney M. and Flora Agnes. Two have died. They have a fine farm on section 35.
A. C. Cast, farmer and fruit-grower, Crescent City, was born in Ohio in 1837, and removed with his father, Hiram V. Cast, to Ver- milion county, about 1840, where his father died in 1844. His mother, Mrs. Cast, married Henry Alexander, and removed to Iroquois county in 1851, where he took up a farm of 300 acres, in section 1 of Douglas township, when this part of the county was very new. Mrs. Alexan- der had three children by her first marriage, and two by her second. One was killed by falling out of a wagon. Mr. Alexander died from disease contracted in the army, and his wife died about the same time. Of their children, Aquilla C. lives at Crescent City, and John, near by. Josephine and George Alexander also live at Crescent City. A. C. Cast married Isabella J. Robinson in 1857. Her father, W. D. Rob- inson, came to Del Rey to live about 1848, where he had a considerable farm, and carried on an extensive cattle trade. Of the eight children of Mr. Cast, five are living : Nettie V., Alma G., Carrie R., Elmer and Alta E. Willie, a bright boy of ten years, was instantly killed by a fall from a running horse; Annie and Gertie died in infancy. Mr.
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Cast is living in Crescent City, and is extensively engaged in raising fruit.
Russell Search, farmer, Woodland, was born in Ohio, 1824. He was living in Indiana when the land which had been withdrawn from market by the Illinois Central railroad was opened again, and con- cluded to get married and get a farm out on this prairie. The former was managed easy enough, but it took considerable work to get the latter. The "speculator's ring" then held sway at Danville, and it was almost impossible to enter land there. He came here late in the year 1854, and went to work getting out lumber for a shanty. In Feb- ruary, 1855, he married Nancy A. Cunningham, whose parents came here to live soon after, and now reside in Minnesota. Mrs. Search died in 1866, leaving four children : Mary, Lewis R., Martha E. K., and Abner. In July, 1870, he married Miss German, and has two children : Emma and George. He has a good farm on section 33, being the same land he took up twenty-five years ago. Politically, Mr. Search has always, since the growth of that party, been a repub- lican.
Edward Hitchcock, farmer and sewing-machine agent, Crescent City, was born in 1835, in Connecticut. He was educated in the common school until thirteen years old, when he commenced active life. While living in Connecticut he was laboring as a mechanic, or in mercantile pursuits. He married at Davenport, Iowa, in 1856, Miss Juline Brooks, to whom six boys and three girls have been born. They came to Crescent township to reside in 1857, where they still reside on section 18. Their daughter, Mrs. Francis Stocking, is in Kansas. Their other, children, Lillian, Leverett, Hattie, Edward, Jr., Charles, Lewis, Frank and Gilbert, are at home. During his residence here Mr. Hitchcock has been engaged in farming, and most of the time has been selling sewing-machines in this county. He has also been the agent for Thomas and Richard Ainsworth, in charge of their lands in this county. He has been six times supervisor and three times collector of the township. During most of his life he has acted with the democratic party, but is now in hearty unison with the inde- pendent party. He is a man of large information and accurate busi- ness habits.
Elisha Ferguson, carpenter, Crescent City, was born in Olio in 1840. He came to this county in 1858, and worked at his trade of carpenter and house-builder in the new settlements then starting. He built the first house in Gilman that year, when the hands and help were obliged to go to Onarga for their meals and lodging. He has often traveled over these prairies when there was only one house
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CRESCENT TOWNSHIP.
between Old Middleport and Jefferson Point. He lived three years at Onarga, three at Watseka, and removed to a farm five miles east of Onarga, where he continued, while farming, to carry on his trade. He built the third house in Crescent City, the one now occupied by Dr. Brelsford. He also built the one now owned by Mr. Downing, and the one adjoining it, where he now resides. In 1860 he married Miss Mary J. Grear, whose parents came to Jefferson Point in 1854. Mrs. Grear and some of her children still reside near here. Mr. Fer- guson has five children : Minnie, William, Lillie, Charlie and Grace. At present Mr. Ferguson has charge of the lumber yard of Mr. Egley.
George N. Downing, farmer, Crescent City, was born in Sciota county, Ohio, in 1832. His father, William Downing, moved from there in 1846, with their eight children, and entered land three miles east of Watseka, and lived there seven years. He afterward lived in Middleport and Myersville, in Vermilion county, and then went to Kansas, where he died. He was an earnest and devoted member of the Methodist church. One of his daughters, Mrs. Longnecker, lives near Woodland, and his son, Simeon, is in Iowa. George N. Downing was married in 1854, to Miss Dulina E. Botsford, of this county. Her father resides at Fairbury now. For a time they lived near Texas. In 1867 he bought in section 12 and removed there, where he resided for twelve years. He now lives at Crescent City. He has served as school director for a number of years.
C. C. Deitz, farmer, Onarga, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1832. His parents were German, and had but recently migrated to this country. He was early put to work, having very little school education, his time being mostly spent in the lime kiln. His father lived for thirteen years on Klein's farm, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania. In 1856 he came to Indiana and went thence to Iowa, but returned and married in 1857, and went to farming on rented land. About 1865 he removed to this state, and in 1868 bought and improved the farm he now lives on in section 31, enduring the hardships which are consequent to a new location. Here Mrs. Deitz died, January 17, 1870, leaving seven small children, the youngest being but a few hours old : Melissa Jane, Milton A., Anna Laura, John H., Charles F., Sarah Estella and Eliza, who died at seven months old. March 27, 1871, he married Mrs. Emma Thompson, who was one of fourteen children of Adan G. Orth, Esq., a brother of Hon. Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana. She was first married at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and was living there at the time of the rebel raid into Pennsylvania, and her family were consider- able sufferers by that incursion. Mrs. Deitz had one daughter, Fannie, when married, and has since liad two sons: Godlove Orth and Cyrus
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Edgar. Mr. Deitz has a farm of 200 acres which is finely inanaged and neatly farmed. He is a man of strong mental powers and, con- sidering his early disadvantages, a mind well stored with information,
Daniel W. Webster, farmer, Crescent City, was born at Hanover. New Hampshire, in 1822. His father, Benjamin, was a cousin of the great national statesman, Daniel Webster, and enjoyed in a great meas -. ure the esteem and confidence of his relative. Mr. Webster, at the age of twenty-two, after completing a good common-school education, went to Massachusetts and followed various occupations, clerking and teach- ing a portion of the time. In 1850 he married Miss Augusta Robin- son at Lowell. He afterward returned to New Hampshire and engaged in farming. He removed to Kendall county, Illinois, in 1865, and three years later came to his present place of residence, where he has a farm of 160 acres in section 18. He has three children : Mrs. Ella A. Cook resides in Kendall county ; Frederick D. is at Dodge City, Kansas; and Miss Lilla M. is engaged in teaching. Politically Mr. Webster has long been a radical anti-slavery man. He is a man of large experience in business affairs and has a mind well stored with information.
J. D. Young, merchant and general dealer, Crescent City, was born in Perry county, Ohio, in 1845. His parents were from Bavaria, and immigrated to America in 1828. At the age of twenty he enlisted in the 126th Ohio Vol. Inf., and marched with the old flag through the wilderness, up and down the Shenandoah valley, and " on to Rich- mond," where he saw the surrender of the Confederate hosts. He was wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, May 7, 1864, but served out his time, being transferred first to the Invalid Corps, then to the Vet- eran Reserve Corps. After the close of the war he went to El Paso, ' Woodford county, and engaged with his brothers in trade. In 1868 he commenced keeping a store in a building which stood on section 31, Iroquois township, one mile west of where Crescent City now is, and was appointed postmaster of Crescent. A year later he removed to Crescent City, and was the first to open business here, where he still continues to carry on a large and increasing mercantile trade, and deals in cattle, hogs and grain. He has two farms in section 4. He mar- ried Miss Duquid in Perry county, Ohio, in 1868. They have one child, Katy. He has, during the entire life of this place, been one of the most active and industrious business men, and was the primne mover in organizing and building the Roman Catholic church here.
George Egley, mercantile, grain and lumber dealer, Crescent City, has been extensively identified with all the business interests of Cres- cent City since its first year. He was born at Burlington, New Jer-
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CRESCENT TOWNSHIP.
sey, in 1829. At the age of six years he was left an orphan, and very soon had to learn to rely on his own resources. Without the care of parents, he came up with very few advantages of education, and early learned the trade of a wagon and carriage-maker, which he carried on for several years, after which he became interested in cranberry cul- . ture, which was, like all his undertakings, successful. He came west in 1869 and had his attention called to the new opening at Crescent City, and having sufficient capital to commence a general trade, with energy and industry to back it, he engaged in the grain trade and farm- ing. In 1873 he opened the mercantile business, which, with the aid of his sons, he has continued to carry on. He soon after commenced the lumber trade, and later bought the elevator, repaired and enlarged it, and still occupies it. He has added farm to farm, until he is prob- ably the largest resident landholder in the township. He has served as supervisor of each of the townships of Iroquois and Crescent. In September, 1851, he married Martha R. Kirkbride, who, with her four children, are all living. The eldest son, John K., is living on a farm in Iroquois township. W. H. is in charge of the store at Crescent City. Mrs. Lizzie, wife of M. B. Gifford, has recently removed to Nebraska. George B., the later addition to his family, is now six years old. Politically Mr. Egley has always called himself a democrat, and holds strongly the ancient dogmas of that persuasion : " Free trade amd sailors' rights." He has universally been a successful man in business enterprises.
Charles E. Barber, grain-dealer and postmaster, Crescent City, was born in Oneida county, New York, in 1836. He received a good common-school education and then attended the seminary at Charlotte- ville, and the Claverack Institute, under the charge of Rev. Alonzo Flack, after which he went west and engaged in farming in Wisconsin. He returned to Oneida county and taught school winters and worked at farming summers. He afterward took charge of a large lumbering business at Forest Port for a time, and then came to Crescent City in 1870, where he took charge of the railroad office, after which he engaged in the lumber business with Mr. Egley two years. He then bought Mr. Egley's interest and continued the business for five years. He is now in the flax-seed and implement trade. He has held the office of township treasurer for several years, and is the present post- master, justice of the peace, and assessor. In 1860 he married Miss Adaline Dickerson, of Rome, New York; and they have three chil- dren : Ida, Hattie E. and Charles E. Politically, Mr. Barber has always been a republican of decided views.
Julius C. Gaebler, harness-maker, Crescent City, was born in
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Saxony in 1843. His father was a cabinet-inaker and died when Julius was three years old. He enjoyed the good school advantages of that country, attending school, as the law requires, from the age of six till that of fourteen, after which he was bound out to learn the harness-making trade, giving for the four-years instruction $75 and a good feather bed. He did so well that they let him off after serving three years, and he went out to work as a journeyman. He worked in Paris seven years, and came to this country in 1868. He worked in New Haven, Connecticut ; then in Omaha and Columbus, Nebraska, where he married, in 1871, Bertha Van Brandt, who died soon after. In 1873 he married Amalia Merberger. He came to Crescent City in 1874 and worked for Harwood & Graham one year, since which time he has worked on his own account. He has three children : Bertha, Herman and Edward.
James A. Hasbrouck, farmer, Crescent City, was born in Ulster county, New York, in 1843. He was brought up on a farm but had good educational advantages. The Hasbroucq (as it was formerly spelled) family were originally from France, but found a refuge in Germany before the revocation of the edict of Nantes, which was so oppressive early in the seventeenth century. Abraham came to this country about 1675, and settled at Esopus, Ulster county, where the family has for two centuries had its home. James A. taught school for five years and then went through a course of study at Eastman's Cominercial College at Pouglikeepsie, New York, under the care of the late Hon. Harvey G. Eastman. He came west in 1865 and com- menced the business of house-builder and contractor in Chicago, which was fairly successful. He then resumed school-teaching, teaching the school at Leyden five years, and the graded school at Des Plaines three years. In 1871 he married Sarah E. Smith, daughter of William Smith, of Watseka. She was a graduate of the Cook County Normal School, of the class of 1870, when it was under the charge of Prof. Wentworth. They have three children : Mary, Harry and Howard. In 1874 he purchased a farm of 160 acres on section 8, one mile from the station, where he still resides. He has been school trustee, and is now township treasurer.
H. L. Pape, merchant, Crescent City, was born in Westphalia in 1850. His father was a physician and gave him a good education. He graduated from the High School at Lemgo, and in 1869 came to America. He was engaged as clerk with Henry Strandes, of Chicago, and afterward as a traveling salesman for F. H. Roebbelen. He then returned to Germany. He came back here and commenced business at Papineau. October 18, 1877, he married Mary, daughter of William
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PIGEON GROVE TOWNSHIP.
Schwer, of Crescent township, and in 1879 opened a store at Crescent City. He has one son, Erwin.
PIGEON GROVE TOWNSHIP.
The township of Pigeon Grove, which, during nearly all of its history, has been portions of Loda and Fountain Creek, is legally described as town 24, range 14 west of the second principal meridian. It is bounded on the north by Artesia and Ash Grove, on the east by Fountain Creek, on the south by Vermilion and Ford counties, and on the west by Loda. The township was all prairie, except the grove of about 80 acres on section 2. Pigeon creek runs across the town from southwest to northeast, and numerous branches which show pebbly bottoms flow across it, having the same general direc- tion. It is wholly within the artesian region, water being reached at a depth of about forty-two feet. In the northern portion the wells flow, but in the southern part of the town they do not. The land is deep and fertile, and the surface beautifully rolling.
It is one of the singular things about the settlement of this part of the country that, with all the wealth of advantages which rich soil, plenty of water and superior drainage gave, it was only till a late date that it became settled up. For fifty years it has been known and traveled over by persons passing back and forth from the streams flowing into the Illinois to those of the Wabash. It was not an unknown country. At all seasons of the year it was seen, and its beauties recognized by hundreds of persons. Herds of cattle were kept here by those who must have seen the peculiar advan- tages of the country. Twenty-five years ago the Central railroad was only from five to ten miles away from it; yet it remained for many years a comparative waste, while people who ought to have seen its worth were pushing into Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, to live upon poorer lands, to find a more distant and uncertain market and a less healthy home.
Few people who live within this town know anything of the dan- gers of early travel over this route, between Spring creek and the Middle fork. From the friendly timber at Blue Grass, on the latter, to that of the Spring creek below Buckley, was about twenty-five miles as the bird flies.
William and Stephen Cissna bought the Pigeon Grove Farm in 1855. They purchased one section of the railroad company, and the balance of Coleman, Milford & Hanna. They have 1,200 acres
26
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
in sections 1, 2 and 12. Stephen came here, bringing a house with him from Chicago by railroad, and put it up here on the farm. The grove had, at one time, been the place for roosting of innumer- able swarms of pigeons. These "roosts" were great curiosities when visited at night. The birds would pile upon the trees until they would break down by the weight of the mass, and all during the night keep up such a flutter that at a little distance. it sounded like thunder. Persons would come into the place at night and kill thousands of them with poles, and carry them off by wagonfuls. It could hardly be called sport.
Stephen Cissna resided here for a number of years, grazing and feed- ing cattle. There was no end to the range for cattle, and he usually handled 600 or 700 head. He now resides in Watseka. His son, who - was engaged at the stock-yards in the commission business, died very suddenly in Colorado, in October, 1879. William Cissna came here to reside, from Indiana, in 1868, and has since carried on the large busi- ness of the grove farm. In boring the well, water was reached at the depth of forty feet, when the auger fell three feet to solid rock, which shows that the cavity which was reached, and which is filled with water, is three feet thick. Thomas Willis, Philip Weaver and Moses Stroup settled on section 19 more than twenty years ago. Isaac Oathout and George McMullin settled on section 20 about the same time. William Bissell was an early settler on section 17. Joseph Hindman, who lived on section 5, was killed in 1878, by being thrown from his wagon when coming home in the night.
There are several families of Germans living in the southern part of the township.
A considerable portion of the lands of this township are held by non-residents. Corn is the principal crop, though flax is an im- portant crop, giving an average product of from eight to ten busliels per acre.
Y . THE CATTLE WAR.
The war which came near drenching the fair soil of Pigeon Grove with the blood of many cattle, but which was finally arbitrated by the payment of pretty heavy awards, occurred in 1868. The close of the great rebellion opened the vast cattle herds of Texas to pur- chase, and the cattle men of the north who began to find the supply here growing short, found that there was immense money in the Texas steers. Good three and four-year-olds could be bought there for about one-quarter what cattle of a like age cost here. This looked like a great speculation, and indeed it was, until it was found that, owing to some subtle cause, not yet thoroughly understood or
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