USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 13
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any knowledge about the body they sought for, and said perhaps the students might account for it. They noticed also that Dr. Richards and some of the students were fully armed and seemed to be ready for trouble in case of an attack. When Mr. Kenyon caught sight of Rude, who had been detected at Sycamore. he took an instinctive aversion to him and could scarcely be restrained from shooting him on the spot. Nothing, however, was gained by this parley. The crowd had increased on the way, so that now about three hundred men stood in front of Dr. Richards' house and had so arranged their party that escape was impossible. Seeing that trouble was in store for them, one of the young men of the institution informed them that he had seen a corpse answering the description of Mrs. Kenyon. Upon hearing this David Churchill, father of the deceased, and Mr. Kenyon, her husband, rushed for the door and forced it partly open. when the muzzle of a gun was thrust out and fired. Mr. Churchill pushed the barrel of the gun downward, so that no one was injured. This was followed by a shot from Mr. Kenyon, who was armed with a rifle. He fired blindly through the door and by the irony of fate his bullet pierced Rude, the guilty resurrectionist, through the hips and he was mortally wounded. An assault followed and all the windows in the building were broken and several students wounded and Dr. Richards was struck twice. As he appeared at the door and made a sign to surrender a stone struck him in the temple and he was carried back senseless. The friends of Richards feared that another attack would be made and secured the services of an attorney. A. Barry, who promised them that the body would be returned, and he instructed Mr. Prescott, a relative of Mrs. Kenyon, to go to a spot two miles south of St. Charles on a farm now owned by Mrs. Harvey Jones, of Sycamore. And it should be stated in passing that a constable appeared on the scene and ordered the mob to cease firing, and at that junc- ture Mr. Barry, an attorney, since well known in this county, promised the mob that he would return the body the next morning. Mr. Barry and a student named Harvey, with Mr. Bannister and Prescott, of St. Charles, found the remains buried on the banks of the Fox river in a grove, about two feet deep. wrapped in a blanket. The body was taken to the river, washed of the earth that adhered to it. wrapped in some clothing, placed in a coffin and brought back to Sycamore. A second funeral service was held at the Methodist church at Sycamore and a large concourse of people met on that Sabbath day to consign for the second time to the grave the body that had caused so much excitement in all the country around. It has been stated that the body was taken to the home of Mr. Kenyon and there buried under his window. but the body was buried in the grave from which it was taken and a tombstone pointed out to those interested in the early history of the county, and many are the visitors even to this day to the grave which caused so much turmoil and loss of life. An impression seems deeply founded that Dr. Richards was on the whole a bad man of the criminal type and thus he has been depicted in the histories to the present time. We will say, however, that Dr. Richards was a very well educated gentleman and at the time he was shot ranked as high as any other physician in Illinois. Many were the physicians of Chicago who sought his counsel. Mrs. Harvey A. Jones, who was then a
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girl of ten or twelve years, and witnessed the shooting and knew Dr. Richards intimately. as he had been their family physician for years, says that his home was one of refinement, that he had traveled abroad and in many respects was regarded as one of the most intellectual men of the community. It is needless to say that this broke up the organized band of resurrectionists, and from that day the visitors, even to this day, to the grave which had been their family physician for years, say that to this day, with one exception. crime of a like nature in this locality has been unknown. Rude died the day following, the students recovered, while Dr. Richards finally died from the effects of his wounds inflicted by the Sycamore mob. We will say. however, that had it not been for the impudence of Dr. Richards and his students when parties were searching for the body and for the carelessness with which the remains of the dissected bodies were handled, this trouble would never have occurred. Parties still living remember well how Dr. Richards and his students threw the remains of human bodies after dissection into the river, which naturally excited a spirit of opposition to their work. The account as we give it is from a conversation held with George MI. Kenyon about a month previous to his death. with Mrs. Harvey A. Jones, who witnessed the riot, and from members of the mob who participated in that event, and reported by L. M. Gross in his history of DeKalb county.
CHAPTER XII.
BANDITTI.
The history of northern Illinois in pioneer days is not unlike that of other sections of our country. The lawless element always seeks the frontier, as they are generally freer from detection and are brought to justice with greater difficulty than in older settlements. In this section of the country in the later '30s and early '40s. all through this state and eastern Iowa were organized bands of thieves. Some of these were desperate men, who were driven from their homes in the east because of crimes committed. As there was but little property in those early days and horses were extremely valuable as a means of travel. and in fact were the only means of communication, the desperadoes' work was largely horse stealing. It is due largely to the men of Kane. DeKalb, Ogle and Winnebago counties that this rascality was brought to a close east of the Mississippi valley. The story has been frequently told and it is with considerable care and after personal investigation that we state the facts that appear below. Great injustice has been done in the different accounts of the stories of the banditti, which has been a severe infliction to those who survive and were entirely innocent of the crimes committed. Mob law is never justifiable and in many cases had the law taken its course and the men been put on trial it is claimed their innocence could have easily been established. As it is, even the excitement of that time. when prairie pirates were thirsting for blood, no real proof was ever established against the men
GOODS
40
PECK'S STORE ON SITE OF OLD CITY HALL. ELGIN.
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so hastily and cruelly executed at Washington's Grove June 29, 1841. In Brodie's Grove, which is west of the present township of Malta, was a rendezvous for the banditti. Mr. Benjamin Worden, one of the early pioneers of DeKalb county. discovered what was known as the "sink hole" while in search of some cattle. Into this the horses were taken and secured during the day and at night were removed to stations further north, the horse thieves finding an excellent market for their stolen property in the lumber districts of Wisconsin. The line of travel was usually from Brodie's Grove to Gleason's at Genoa. Henpeck, now Old Hampshire, in Kane county, thence north through McHenry county into Wisconsin. It was sometimes very difficult to detect the parties who were in sympathy with the banditti. In almost every instance when they were brought to trial they had representatives who were on the jury and conviction seemed almost impossible. After several trials, with the thefts of horses increasing, the citizens who were law-abiding organized themselves into what is known as the Regulators or Lynching Clubs.
Mr. Burton C. Cook, state's attorney 1846-52. wrote as follows :
"During the term of Mr. Fridley as prosecuting attorney, and for a part of my term. the northwestern part of the state was infested by a most danger- ous and wicked association of outlaws, thieves and counterfeiters, such as are often found upon the frontiers of civilization, having grips. signs and pass- words whereby they could identify each other, and bound by oaths to protect each other. They were the enemies of society. unscrupulous and brutal. The citizens of DeKalb and Ogle counties organized bands of regulators to protect themselves and their property. Mr. Campbell, the captain of the regulators, was shot at his own house at White Oak Grove, and then the citizens followed, captured and shot some of the more notorious of the gang and it was finally broken up in this section. The able and efficient prosecution by my friend, Mr. Fridley, was greatly appreciated by the bar and by the citizens generally at the time and was greatly instrumental in freeing the country from the presence of the evil-doers. The indignation excited by the torturing to death of Colonel Davenport at Rock Island caused such persistent and hot pursuit of the rascals, and the execution of so many of them, that the gang was wholly suppressed.
"The main trouble with these desperate outlaws was in the region lying along the Rock river and its tributaries, which was settled by a much less desirable class than that which for the most part peopled the Fox River valley. But the records show that even in Kane county there was more or less difficulty with them. Their principal acts of outlawry consisted of horse stealing and they were adepts at the business. At the April ( 1848) term of the circuit court two men. Ames and Holmes, were convicted of stealing a span of horses from William Lance. of Blackberry, and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment in the penitentiary at Alton, whither they were taken by Sheriff Spaulding. The county commissioners, in September of the same year. passed an order offering a reward. not exceeding $50. for the appre- hension and conviction of each person found guilty of stealing a horse, mare or mule, within the limits of Kane county."
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY CHAPTER XIII.
GEOLOGICAL.
Kane county occupies a position nearly in the northeast corner of the state of Illinois, is thirty miles long by eighteen broad, and has an area of 540 square miles. It is bounded north by McHenry county, east by Cook and DuPage, south by Kendall, and west by DeKalb. Being in such close proximity to Chicago, it is traversed by several of the great trunk lines of railway, which pass through in seeking an entrance to the metropolis. It consists of fifteen congressional and sixteen civil townships, and ranks. in point of wealth, population, manufactures, dairy and farm products, and other respects, among the first in the state. A large portion of its population has clustered into the numerous thrifty cities, towns and villages which lie within its borders. These include Carpentersville. Dundee, Elgin, South Elgin, St. Charles. Geneva, Batavia. North Aurora, Aurora and Montgomery, all on Fox river. and Sugar Grove, Big Rock, Kaneville, Elburn, Maple Park, Hampshire, Pingree Grove, Rutlandville and several lesser settlements in the interior of the county.
The county is well watered by Fox river and its tributaries, while the drainage from the northwestern portion finds its way ultimately to Rock river, the immediate outlet being Coon creek, in the townships of Burlington and Hampshire. Fox river is. for a prairie region, a remarkably steady stream, but this is accounted for in the fact that it drains Lake Geneva, in Wisconsin, and Fox and Pistaka lakes, in northern Illinois, and numerous other smaller bodies of water in the same region, besides being fed by springs all along its course. Its principal tributaries in this county are Tyler, Ferson. Blackberry, Big Rock and Mill creeks. from the west, and Brewster, Norton and Indian creeks, from the east, with a number of smaller ones discharging a greater or less quantity of water into the parent stream. Fox river fur- nishes excellent water power from one end of the county to the other and dams have been constructed across it at Carpentersville. Elgin. South Elgin. St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, North Aurora, Aurora and Montgomery, while others which existed in an early day were located at other points along the stream and were not of extensive proportions. The general course of the river is southerly and the scenery along its banks is remarkably fine. Its channel is dotted with numerous islands, some of which are very large and have become valuable property, as is the case at Batavia and Aurora.
At the great bend, in St. Charles township, the stream sweeps along the north shore of a low wood-crowned limestone bluff. and with its islands and the beautiful shores present a most picturesque and inviting scene.
Fine drives have been constructed along both sides of the river through- out the length of the county, and the visitor to the region is greatly impressed with the beauties which lie spread before him.
A branch of the Kishwaukee river rises in Rutland township and flows northward, while another branch drains a considerable portion of Virgil. Nelson's lake, in Batavia and Blackberry townships, and Lilly lake, in Camp- ton, once contained a considerable amount of water, but the system of
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drainage adopted in late years has robbed them of their dignity as lakes. The first settlers found in certain portions of the county quite extensive tracts of low, marshy lands, which were called "sloughs," but judicious drainage has reclaimed the land covered by them in most instances and heavy crops of corn, etc., are raised where once was only a miry bog.
Stretching away from Fox river. in either direction, lies a broad prairie region, exceedingly fertile and dotted with numerous groves of timber. The surface of the county is diversified more than is usually the case in a prairie country. The bed of Fox river lies from thirty to ninety feet below the sur- rounding country and in places its banks are bold and approach the magnitude of bluffs. In the central portion of the county, principally in the townships of Campton and Blackberry, and again in Dundee, Elgin. St. Charles and Plato, hilly ridges exist, from whose summits commanding views are had of a broad and fertile region. Johnson's Mound, in the township of Blackberry, formerly known as Beeler's Mound, is said to be the highest point of land in the county, rising to the height of ninety feet or more from the midst of the prairie.
The surface rock underlying Kane county belongs to the silurian formation and mostly to the Niagara group.
In the north part of the township of St. Charles the Cincinnati group comes to the surface in a low anticlinal, which bears in a northwesterly direc- tion and fornis the ridge on sections' 3 and 10, around which Fox river sweeps in a long curve toward the north and west and suddenly turns to the south, flowing along a channel greatly diminished in width from that above. The Cincinnati formation outcrops on both sides of the river for a half mile or more and abounds in fossils characteristic of the group. With one exception all the rock outcroppings are along Fox river. The exception is in the fork of Big Rock creek, in the township of Big Rock, and section 26. where the Niagara outcrops in several places.
The strata in the Niagara formation are of varying thicknesses, from an inch or less to two feet or more in the Aurora and Batavia quarries. From Montgomery to a point above Batavia the exposure is almost continuous. Between Geneva and Batavia the rock dips below the surface, but appears again at Geneva and is thence nearly continuous to West St. Charles, when it again disappears for a distance of nearly three miles. It shows a fine exposure in North St. Charles. At South Elgin it appears and is extensively quarried for building purposes.
A very good quality of lime has been manufactured from the Niagara at Aurora. Batavia, St. Charles and South Elgin, and the business is still carried on at some of these points.
The thickness of the Niagara formation varies from eighty to one hundred feet. It is sparingly supplied with fossils, the most prominent being Pentamerus Oblongus and Orthoceras Undulatum. It is usually of a light buff color. though in places it graduates to a bluish tinge, the latter being characteristic of the lower and harder layers. In Aurora and Batavia occur thick-bedded layers, which are extensively quarried for building purposes. Fair examples of buildings constructed from this rock are the old Kane
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county courthouse, the Aurora city hall and the Congregational church, private insane hospital and the two public school buildings in Batavia, and the high school building in Geneva. It is frequently ferruginous, and this is sometimes a very objectionable feature. It does not withstand the action of frost or heat well, but is durable and presents a fine appearance when not too much exposed. The thinner layers make, in connection with good mortar. a very strong wall and withstand the action of the elements much better than the thicker-bedded stone.
The overlying surface formations of Kane county belong chiefly to the quaternary age. the deposits being made up of clay, sand, gravel. cobblestone and the boulders of the drift period.
The surface soil is largely composed of vegetable mold. the entire prairie portion being a mixture of loam and decomposed vegetation. In the timbered districts, which comprise possibly one-fourth of the total area, the soil is of a more clavey nature. Very few sandy tracts exist, though there are immense deposits of coarse and fine sand in the form of glacial moraines and deposits, of which Bald ( or Ball ) Mound and Johnson's Mound. in Blackberry, and the ridge of hills running through Campton. St. Charles. Plato, Elgin and Dundee are good examples. Brick clay abounds in many parts of the county and good molding sand is found in the Fox river bluffs, near the mouth of Norton creek, in St. Charles and southeast of Elgin.
Owing to the limestone formations nearly all the springs and streams are of hard water. There are a few exceptions in the case of wells sunk wholly in gravel and deep mineral bearing springs which come up from sand- stone formations, as in the case of artesian wells and the medicinal springs on the west side of the river in the city of St. Charles. The deepest wells are at the watch factory in Elgin, the grape sugar works and the courthouse in Geneva, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy car shops at Aurora. Water flows from them in a strong stream and is very soft and pleasant to the taste.
An extensive peat bed occurs between Dundee and Carpentersville, cover- ing probably 160 acres, and there are lesser deposits in other places. One of the latest to develop was a short distance southeast of Aurora, which became fired accidentally during the drouth of 1887 and burned until heavy rains extinguished the fire.
Most of the timber now existing in Kane county is a second growth. the original heavy bodies having been principally cleared away. In many places groves of rapidly growing varieties of trees have been set out. thon- sands of evergreens have been brought in to beautify both city and farm property, and great numbers of orchards exist, mostly consisting of apple trees. Upon the soil of Kane county will grow almost every product of the temperate zone, but the changeable nature of the climate renders the winters too severe for the least hardy trees, plants, etc. For this reason less attention is paid to the raising of peaches, pears and other fruits than formerly.
A mastodon was unearthed in April. 1908. That this mammoth roamed the fields and woods of Kane county some one hundred thousand years ago
+
OLD WAVERLY HOUSE, ELGIN.
THE OLD MILL THAT FORMERLY STOOD ON THE SITE OF THE BORDEN FACTORY.
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is unquestioned. Such finds have been made throughout the Mississippi valley.
Workmen on the drainage district ditch this morning on the farm of Will Campbell, three miles southwest of Oswego, hauled out one of the teeth of the prehistoric monster and it was discovered by Commissioner Watts Cutter, who was overseeing the work.
The tooth was a perfectly formed one about fourteen inches long and some six inches square at the large end. The discovery of the dental work of the prehistoric monster caused a sensation and after it had been examined by the party the workmen commenced to dig around in the hope of unearthing other parts of the animal's framework.
Soon their efforts were successful and a portion of the femur was dug up. It was a piece about a foot and a half long and was apparently broken off. At the large end it was fourteen inches in diameter and tapered rapidly down to seven inches at the place where the fracture occurred. Soon another dipperful of the big machine brought up a couple of foot bones and for several hours the finds were numerous. Part of the bones were quite badly decayed but a number of the specimens were in good shape and intact.
The finds were cleaned up and taken to the Cutter drug store in Oswego, where they attracted much attention among the people of the village. Owing to the fact that many of the bones are probably missing, having decayed and fallen apart, it is hardly probable that anything like a perfect skeleton can be constructed, but there will be enough bones found to give some idea of the size of the great animal which rambled over Kendall and Kane counties before the arrival of the trolley car and other twentieth century creations.
CHAPTER XIV.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Early roads in use in Kane county were simply well-worn Indian trails, which connected their various important villages. In a short time from the first settlement. however, lines of travel were opened leading to the principal points in the state. With Chicago as a starting point. highways branched off in various directions, and some of them were laid across the county of Kane. One of the most prominent objective points was Galena, and as early as 1834 a road thence from Chicago was opened for travel, crossing Fox river at what is now Montgomery, at the southern edge of the county. The growth of the McCarty settlement at Aurora, where also a postoffice was established in the spring of 1836, caused a change to be made in the route, it being altered so as to pass through Aurora. This, known as the "Galena road," a name which still clings to it. became one of the most extensively traveled thoroughfares in this region. It led westward from Aurora into and through the township of Sugar Grove, a corner of Blackberry and across Kaneville, and thence in a northwesterly direction to the northwest part of
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the state. Lines of road were also laid crossing Fox river at St. Charles and Elgin, both making for the same part of the state as the one which crossed at Aurora. When the days of stage lines came into existence these were all busy routes of travel.
The necessity of having roads was early recognized and met by the settlers. Generally they were laid on what seemed to be the most convenient and eligible routes between the terminal points, without special regard to directness. There were sloughs and hills to be avoided and good crossings to be selected at streams and other circumstances which naturally made the earlier highways rather devious. But with the establishment of the govern- ment lines of survey and increase in wealth they were gradually straightened, until at present comparatively few of the angular and crooked roads are in existence.
The first work done by the county board of commissioners regarding the laying out of roads was July 12, 1836, when they ordered views of roads to be made. as follows :
From Geneva to the west or north line of this county, on the best and most direct line toward Rockford; Thomas E. Dodge, David Dunham and John Griggs, viewers.
From Geneva westerly to the house of Eli Barnes, thence westerly to the county line, on the best route to Galena ; Henry Madden, Frederick Love and Edwin Keyte, viewers.
From Geneva northerly, along the west side of Fox river, to the north line of Sandusky precinct; James T. Wheeler, Seth Stowell and Joel S. Young, viewers.
From Geneva, on the east side of Fox river, northerly by T. Dues' (or Dewees') mill to the county line; Sanders MI. Howard, Thomas Dewees and William Hammond, viewers.
From the termination of a road through Sandusky precinct, on the west side of Fox river, along the west side of said river to the county line; Samuel J. Kimball, Francis Perry and Thomas H. Thompson, viewers.
From Geneva to the Cook county line, at or near the head of the Big Woods, to intersect a road leading from said line to Chicago: James Her- rington, Wallace Hotchkiss and Alexander Wheeler, viewers.
From Geneva to the west line of Cook county, to intersect a road leading from said line to Chicago; viewers same as last above.
From Geneva southerly by Ball Mound, thence by or through Sugar Grove, near the house of Elijah Pierce, to the point where the Ottawa road crosses Rock creek; Lyman Isbell, Harry White and James Carman, viewers.
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