USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 12
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LL
OLD WOODEN BRIDGE, CHICAGO STREET. ELGIN, 1866.
OLD BRIDGE ACROSS FOX RIVER.
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semi-daily communication with it. Four of them have newspapers-a larger number, probably, than are issued in any other county in the state, with the exception of the one embracing Chicago.
"The most northern of the Kane county villages, on Fox river, is Dundee, which, as its name would indicate, has a large sprinkling of Scotch inhabitants in and around it. It lacks that appearance of thrift and enterprise which mark its sister villages further south-and as the iron horse is not to visit it. its future prospects are not the brightest. Its present population is about 800, with the usual proportion of churches, schools, etc.
"Five miles further down is Elgin, containing about 2,000 inhabitants. One of the first settlers and principal founders of this place was James T. Gifford, whose lamented death occurred last summer. To no man is Elgin more indebted, and long will her citizens regret their loss. Mr. Gifford lived to see a beautiful village of 2,000 inhabitants on a spot which, when first visited by him, some fifteen years since, had just been vacated by the wild Indian. He also lived to realize that much depends upon the influence exerted on an embryo village, and to have cause for gratulation that the influence which he and his co-pioneers brought to bear on Elgin while society was in its forming state there, was Christian. Few places can boast of better society than this village. The number and strength of its evangelical churches; the number of houses erected for the worship of Jehovah, and the interest felt in the subject of education which, whatever may be said to the contrary, are the true indices of the state of society, speak an unequivocal language in favor of Elgin. The scarcity of grog-shops proclaim as unequivo- cally that here King Alcohol is not an absolute monarch.
"The Congregationalists, Calvanistic Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Methodists and Unitarians each have church edifices-all of them respectable in appearance, and some of them large and attractive.
"For several years there was published at this place a religious paper called The Western Christian, and designed to be the organ of the anti-slavery Baptists. This has recently been removed to Utica, N. Y., where it is now published. It is succeeded by The Elgin Gazette, a paper not denominational nor exclusively religious, but which, nevertheless, exerts a good moral influence.
"A large two-story brick schoolhouse indicates the interest taken in the subject of education here. In addition to this an effort was made some two years since, by the Free Will Baptists, to establish a college at this place, and some $5,000 was subscribed by the citizens toward the erection of a building. A noble structure has been commenced, but the work has been suspended in consequence of a lack of funds, and the building seems likely for the present to remain in statu quo.
"The Elgin woolen factory is a large establishment of the kind. which adds materially to the business and to the appearance of the place. Near this establishment a splendid brick store. 75 by 100 feet long. has been erected during the past season, and during the coming season a block containing eight or ten others of like dimensions is to be erected in proximity to it. Some idea may be formed from these facts of the growth of the place. The
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rapidity of its present growth may be attributed in a great measure to the passage through it of the Chicago & Galena railroad.
"Elgin, like other Fox river villages in the county. is divided by the stream, and each of its sections is striving for the ascendant. The railroad was at first constructed to east Elgin, with the expectation that if it did not cross there it would cross at some point above. The directors have. however. since decided to leave the present track some distance east of the village and cross two or three miles below. The road will then be constructed to the section of the village lying west of the river. where a depot will be erected. This will probably cause the road between east Elgin and the Junction to be unused, and will transfer much of the business of the place from the east to the west side of the stream. A natural consequence of the location of the depot is an increase in the value of village lots on the west side."
Many of the suggestions of the above writer have been realized. but trade was not diverted to the west side. that side of the river having increased comparatively little since the above was written, while the east side now con- tains nearly all the business district.
A saw-mill was built by Joseph McCarty on the island at Aurora in 1835. the first timber being sawed on June 8. 1835. An old style, upright saw being used. The first saw-mill was built just south of Batavia at the mouth of Mill Creek by C. B. Dodson. A mercantile establishment that sold everything salable was opened by James L. Adams in 1836. Taverns were built at Aurora and Elgin that year. A stage route from Chicago to Elgin opened in 1837. A library was opened at Aurora in 1837. A postoffice was established in 1837. and a bridge built in 1836.
In 1834 a log schoolhouse was erected by the efforts of Colonel Joseph Lyon. about one mile east of what is now Batavia. with nine pupils. A bridge was built in 1837. The first Batavia tavern was built in 1837. A church was organized in 1835.
In 1839 a bridge was erected at Dundee; a schoolhouse built in 1837; a "hotel" opened on the west side by Hardin Oatman in 1838; a saw-mill erected in 1837.
At Elgin a log schoolhouse was built in 1837. near what is now South Elgin. Elgin was made a postoffice in 1837: a log tavern appeared in 1836. July 4. 1836. the first road vas built east from Elgin to Meacham's Grove (now Bloomingdale). A juice of the peace and constable were elected in 1836; a saw-mill was completed in 1837. A grist-mill was built the same year on the east side at the head of the old race way. The town plat was surveyed in 1836. A wooden bridge was put up at a cost of $400 in 1837. The first frame dwelling was built in Elgin by Dr. Joseph Tefft in 1838. on the site of the present city hall. then Dr. Tefft's residence: a blacksmith set up business in 1838. The first school was opened in 1835. and the first religious service was held in the Gifford cabin. September. 1835. A religious society was organized in 1836.
At Geneva a school was opened in 1835 by Mrs. Samuel Sterling, who taught in her own cabin. A blacksmith arrived in 1836: a church was organized in 1837: the town was platted in 1837.
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At St. Charles the town was platted in 1837, and named Charleston. A dam, saw-mill and bridge went up in 1836.
At Virgil the first framehouse was built in 1839. by Luther Merrill; a tavern was opened in 1840; a blacksmith shop in 1845; a postoffice in 1849.
At Sugar Grove the first log cabin was raised in 1836, with nails, sawed boards and shingle roof ; a tavern was built in 1836; a postoffice established in 1840. The first "store" was opened in 1839 by P. Y. Bliss, who built a framehouse in 1838. The store was long one of the largest in Kane county and drew the trade from many miles distant.
In Rutland township a postoffice called Deerfield was established in 1838; a log house was erected in 1840, and a church organized by the Catholics about the same time.
In Plato township the Griggs tavern did business in 1836 or 1837; a church was built in 1852, and a school in 1840 at Plato Corners.
At Kaneville a postoffice was established in 1845; a hotel in 1852.
At Hampshire the first school was opened about 1840; a church in 1852.
So the county advanced to settlement, forming the basis for the large and splendid development that has since resulted. The first needs, the church, the schoolhouse, the saw-mill, the postoffice, the general store and the open road everywhere were first attended to: dams, bridges, and grist-mills came next. Soon frame dwellings were built by the more well-to-do (if there were any such ), and progress was then upon its way in the valley of the Fox, preparing for those industries that make its cities world famous, and the product of its farms a household word.
Since those early beginnings by sincere men it has advanced continuously. May its future progress be no less notable.
CHAPTER X.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
The history of the underground railroad in this county was never written and, in fact, it would be difficult to secure a good history of the movement, as all of its operations were supposed to be generally conducted in a secret manner. Synopsis of the underground railroad: "It was a strange road. It had neither locomotive nor cars; it ran in the darkness and was invisible. Its operations were so secret that the people called it the underground rail- road. The friends of this mysterious railway declared that its charter came from God and that it ran from the northern portion of the southern states to Canada. Its officers were largely volunteers and its route was that which afforded to its passengers the greatest safety-salary, time, if not paid in this world will surely be in the next: running expenses donated. It is true that the present generation knows but little of the meaning of the term, under- ground railway, and we have been surprised to hear people who have attained their majority ask if there really was a railroad that ran under ground. It
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is not such a strange question in view of the fact that we may have so many city railways that are now operated under the surface of the earth. The work of this road was simply to aid the fugitive slaves of the South to Canada, where freedom was assured. A conductor on one of these roads not only jeopardized his life but subjected himself to a heavy fine and im- prisonment under the fugitive slave law in Illinois, and if one will refer to the statute books that were printed after the adoption of the new constitution of 1848 they will find heavy fines and long terms of imprisonment for those convicted in aiding negroes from slavery to freedom. The only passengers using the underground railway were the negro people then in slavery and it had been running years before Lincoln's famous proclamation was signed and it might be well to state the feeling of Abraham Lincoln when he attached his name to that immortal document. After he had drafted it and laid it aside for reflection it was brought to him to sign. He lifted his hand to the place of signature and then it fell by his side. Again he lifted it and again it fell. Then, turning to some one near him. he said, 'I have been shaking hands with the people all day and my hand is very weak and shaky. If I should tremble as I write my name on this paper, which will be handed down in history, if any deed of mine is, all the world will say "he hesitated." ' He lifted his hand once more to the place of signature and steadily and firmly wrote A. Lincoln, with which all the world is now familiar. Then leaning back satisfied he said, 'That will do.' Its principal stations were through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio-the route that afforded the passengers the great- est safety-and lay through the anti-slavery portions of the three states mentioned. The homes of abolitionists whose aim was to carry fugitive slaves from one station to another with safety were the stations used. It must be remembered that it was not without fear and trembling that many escaped slaves, who started on their perilous journey, for if they were cap- tured the usual penalty was to sell the escaped slave further south. One negro told how he rubbed onions on the bottom of his shoes to fool the hounds, but this had to be repeated many times in order to break the scent. Often they would wade in streams for a mile or more, or, if possible, steal a mule and ride for some distance. Many of the negro men and women that appeared at the homes of these abolitionists in DeKalb county were covered with stripes from head to foot and had suffered untold agonies in slavery. After the publishing of Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, anti- slavery sentiment grew apace and perhaps more than any other factor this book secured the organization of a party that was opposed to the further extension of that relic of barbarism-slavery."
The present generation can have but little conception of the condition of affairs pertaining to the underground railroad and perhaps the following extracts from Mr. Miller's letter will best illustrate the situation in those pioneer days. Mr. Miller says: "The Church was anti-slavery in its views and here was the 'Union depot' of the 'Underground Railroad.' There were a great many amusing incidents when the trains came in. especially after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, for the slaveholders had got the lines so marked out they could follow the fleeing slaves as a hound could a fox. I might mention
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many facts, I will give only two. A woman came to my house-as white as most women-and said she was a slave and with her husband was fleeing for their freedom and was overtaken by her master and overseer, and they both ran for their lives to the woods, got separated from each other, and had wandered around until she was nearly starved to death, and had to leave the woods; she said she could hear nothing from her husband and feared he was taken back, and she wanted to be sent to Canada. About noon I got Brother Baker to take my horse and take her to the depot at Downer's Grove. He got back about dark. Late in the evening a white man called at my house inquiring for such a woman. I took him to be her master, but after keeping him in the dark for some time I found he was her husband. He said he must see her that night, for she would be gone in the morning and he would lose her, and then wept. I could find no one to go, as I learned the master was in town the day before. I told him I would go, and about two o'clock in the morning we reached the depot. I rapped on the door. A voice said, "Who is there, what is wanted?' I inquired. 'Have you a colored woman here?' He said, 'No.' ( He thought I was the master. ) He did not tell a lie; she was not colored."
The other instance he gives is this: "Soon after there came one woman and two men and wanted to rest awhile, as they were acquainted with one Larry, who lived here some time and was making money. A message came to me from Ottawa saying, 'Four slaveholders are on the track looking for forty slaves that had left the same neighborhood and they were going to Chicago, two by way of Joliet and two by the way of Aurora. Hide them' was the message. We did hide them and watched the movements of the slaveholders as they came into town. They tried to get men to watch and help them, but I am happy to say, with little success. Then they went to Naperville and hired men to watch there. There was a good deal of excite- ment and fear lest they should get them. No one dared to keep them or take them off. I felt something must be done. Colonel Lyon had a covered family carriage that would carry six persons, and said I might have it. I got two of the best horses in town, had my wife and the colored woman dress alike, sitting on the seat together, and the men lying on the bottom of the wagon at the back covered over with blankets. We were to start at eleven in the evening, and as we were ready a lawyer came in. I did not know his views on slavery and trembled a little until he turned to the one living here the longest and placed in his hand a bright shining silver dollar saying, 'God bless you, Larry.' I had no fear of him after that and always found him a fast friend to the slave. When we reached Naperville we met two men ; one took the horses by the bits and the other came to the wagon. Seeing the two women. my wife moved her veil to one side. he saw that she was white and supposing the boys were bags, said to the other, 'All right.' and we passed on. On reaching Chicago, near 'Bull's Head.' we met a man and the colored woman said. 'That's my master.' The boys peeped out and said, 'Sure enough,' and began to get their weapons ready, for they were armed to the teeth, saying they would never go back alive. I knew then all the 'Underground Railroad Hotels' in Chicago. I took them down Washington
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street. Deacon Philo Carpenter's back door was on that street, and I opened the gate and drove up to his back door and called for Mr. Carpenter. The woman said he was down in the city. I called for his wife; she came and at once understood our business. She said. 'I do not know what we shall do, there is great excitement in the city. The slaveholders are here and our house and Dr. Dyers are watched day and night.' 1 saw a scuttle hole overhead and asked her what it was for. She said 'to go up and fix the stove pipe.' We sent them up there with orders to let no one up alive. I then found Deacon Carpenter. He said, "I don't see how we can get them off and I am afraid they will get them, for the boats are watched, also the railroads.' I then called on Mr. Isbell, a colored barber under the Sherman House, and a Mr. Lucas, a colored merchant tailor, and requested them to get the promi- nent colored men together. We met in a private house for consultation. They told me of a man in the lumber business owning land and mills in Michigan, and also vessels, and said one was loading in Chicago and would sail tomorrow for Michigan. 'He is not known as an abolitionist, and yet he is a friend to the colored people.' I went to see him. He said, 'I will take them.' We took the following plan to get them to his warehouse: Forty colored men armed themselves and went in a body to Deacon Carpenter's, and the men on the watch, seeing them, supposing they were after them, fled. and the boys followed them. A covered wagon drove into the yard, and they ( the fugitives ) all got in and the driver drove from one street to another so fast no one could follow and came to the warehouse. A signal was given. agreed upon. the door was opened, and all safe inside. The next day at noon, when all were at dinner, each took a bag on his shoulder and went on board. and a little after we saw them on board just going to their homes in Michigan, where they are now well-to-do farmers.'
From this it appears that this fair country of ours was not always "the home of the free," for the stars and stripes then was the emblem of a gov- ernment whose supreme court had decided that slaves were still property, although in a free state, and it was the duty of every officer and citizen to return them to their masters, thus making slave catchers of every citizen. This was one step toward the war.
CHAPTER XI.
THE RESURRECTIONISTS.
Another type of criminality was rampant in the early days of our country's history, and that was the crime of grave robbing. This had been carried on for years in this section of the country and many were the bodies stolen by men who were called resurrectionists. In the early days no arrangements were made with hospitals for subjects for dissection in medical institutions and they were compelled to resort to the crime of body snatching. The Medi- cal Institution at St. Charles, organized by Dr. George W. Richards, profes-
CITY MILLS.
E
HARDYL
VIEW, LOOKING NORTH FROM NEAR FOX STREET, AURORA ABOUT 1853.
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sor of theory and practice of medicine, and formerly president of the La Porte (Indiana) Medical School, had established a summer school for phy- sicians in St. Charles. His home was opposite the present Universalist parsonage in that city, and the institution in which the dissection was carried on was a stone barn, which has since been torn down. Students in those days came to college poor in purse and were anxious to work to pay their way through school, and as bodies were constantly needed by the Medical Insti- tution they naturally sought remunerative occupation by robbing graves. Two or three graves of honored citizens had been examined and discovered to be emptied of their precious contents. "Many who had recently lost friends commended the painful task of examining their newly made graves, while many friends only refrained from it lest they should find their fears realized and that the outrage so hopeless of redress had been consummated. The irritation and indignation that was caused by this feeling may be readily imagined." In the spring of 1849 three men driving a pair of horses attached to a spring wagon stopped for supper at the Lovell tavern, four miles east of Sycamore, on the St. Charles and Sycamore road. While eating their supper the land lord's daughter overheard some conversation which made her sus- picious. She reported the conversation to her father, who went out and found the implements used by the resurrectionists secreted in the bottom of the wagon. Mrs. George M. Kenyon had been but recently buried and they surmised that it was the intention of the grave robbers to secure her body for the dissecting table, and it was also known that a friendless German had been buried in the south burying ground of Sycamore, now the present site of the Methodist parsonage, and it was supposed that they were also seeking for his body. This news was conveyed to Mr. Harry Joslyn, and he, with Mr. Lorenzo Whittemore, Kimball Dow and a few others, armed themselves and hid near the burying ground, with the hope that the resurrectionists might be caught robbing the grave. Early in the evening, not long after dark, three men made their way into the cemetery and immediately began search for the grave of the German. As they approached it the men in hiding noticed that they were armed. One of their number went to the wagon to secure the tools necessary for digging. At this moment one of the party in hiding was seized with a fit of coughing, which alarmed the grave robbers, and they immediately hurried to the wagon and drove into town. The party in hiding followed them into the village and caused the arrest of the resurrectionist party. One was found to be the son of Dr. Richards, president of the Medical Institution at St. Charles. Another was a man by the name of Jolin Rude, and the name of the other was unknown. There not being found sufficient evidence of their guilt. they were released. The parties arrested were thor- oughly alarmed and their fright was not lessened by Waterman answering their question as to what would be done by them by the promise to shoot them in the morning. It was supposed after their severe fright that they would make a hasty retreat for St. Charles, but they recovered their nerve, and although they started directly east for their home, they evidently decided they would not return without something to show for their night's work. Mrs. George M. Kenyon was buried in what is now known as the Ohio Grove
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cemetery and, dying at the age of but seventeen years, in the bloom of youth. a girl well known, great sympathy was felt for the young husband and her immediate family. After her burial her grave was watched for two nights and it was supposed that all would be well thereafter. The parties watching the grave of Mrs. Kenyon the third night left shortly after midnight. Two of her girl friends were impressed by the story of the grave robbers, which had been circulated throughout the country, laid a twine over the grave and fastened it at each side, covering it with dirt so that if it were molested it could easily be detected. When the relatives arrived at the grave in the morning they still found the string in position, but something made them uneasy, and after hearing the story of the grave robbers being in Sycamore they decided to investigate. Upon digging down their fears were realized as the comb of the deceased was found about a foot below the surface. Reaching the coffin they found it emptied of its contents and the grave clothes alone remained in it. The lid of the casket had been broken in and the body taken hastily away. News of this crime spread over the country like wildfire. Mr. David Churchill, father of the deceased, was a man well known and highly respected, and the circumstances of the young lady's death made the crime seem doubly terrible. It was decided before any action was taken in the matter to have a party go to Dr. Richards at the Medical Institution and demand the return of the body. Upon arriving at St. Charles they procured a search warrant and went to the institution and while on their way found the horse belonging to a Sycamore physician, who had doubtless gone there in great haste to inform Dr. Richards that he had better be on his guard. Upon examining the dissecting room they found fragments of human bodies and skeletons, but none corresponding to the description of Mrs. Kenyon. As they were about to leave the building Mr. Kenyon discovered upon the stone flagging a lock of hair belonging to his wife. It was the precise peculiar shade of his lost wife's hair and he knew it in an instant. It was not sufficient evidence to convince a jury perhaps, but it satisfied him. He went back and begged piteously for the remainder of his wife's remains and it was here that Dr. Richards made his great mistake in inflaming the searching party. He said to Mr. Kenyon in his hour of sorrow: "I have no subjects now, but if you will come again in a few days I will have a lot of them. and from your way. too." The party returned to Sycamore, reported to their neighbors what had transpired. showed the friends the lock of hair belonging to Mrs. Kenyon. told of the insuiting remarks made by Dr. Richards to the grieved husband. and with one accord the citizens of Sycamore and vicinity volunteered to go next day and recover the body or know the reason why. A large part of them were young men, impetuous and ready for trouble. but the older men counseled conservative action. A committee was selected to again visit Dr. Richards and was composed of the following men: Esquire Currier, of St. Charles ; John C. Waterman, William Fordham, Lorenzo Whittemore and Kimball Dow, of Sycamore. They informed Dr. Richards what they were there for, told of the party that was ready for action, and that it had only been by the intercession of their friends that an assault had not been made at once. They still found Dr. Richards defiant and impudent, and he denied
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