USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 51
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"There are, however, two branches of this road from Aurora, which must now receive consideration. The Ottawa, Oswego & Fox River Valley Railroad and the Chicago & Iowa Railroad."
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THE FOX RIVER LINE.
In 1868 the legislation passed a bill authorizing towns along the Fox river to vote to take stock in the new Ottawa, Oswego & Fox River Valley Railroad, extending from Streator to Geneva. Aurora held a special town meeting February 26, 1869. to vote on taking this stock to the extent of sixty thousand dollars, and issuing town bonds therefor bearing ten per cent interest. The vote was 1,050 for, and 561 against the bonds. The bonds were issued and sold and the stock was received by the super- visor. For two years taxes were levied and money collected to pay the interest and ten per cent of the principal of the bonds, making the sum of twelve thousand dollars, which was paid on the bonds. At this juncture the supreme court decided that the law under which the bonds were issued was unconstitutional. Some one in one of the small towns down the river, who had a grudge against the railroad, discovered that this law was read only 011 trvo separate days in the lower house, whereas the constitution required it to be read on three separate days in both the house and senate. He, there- fore, went into court and secured an injunction against the town authorities of his town forbidding them from levying any tax in that town for the pay- ment of either interest or principal of these bonds. The case was taken to the supreme court and the injunction was sustained. \ similar injunction was secured against the authorities of Aurora. This brought on a peculiar state of affairs. The town owned sixty thousand dollars worth of railroad stock, on which it had paid only twelve thousand dollars. It had outstanding forty-eight thousand dollars in bonds, which a large majority of the people of the town wanted to pay, but they were prohibited from paying them by an injunction from the supreme court. The innocent holders of these bonds, who paid full value for them in good money, were unintentionally swindled out of their money. Many years afterwards, a town meeting authorized the super- visor to exchange this railroad stock for an equal amount of town bonds, for which the stock was issued. The bonds were held in different parts of the country, many of them in Aurora. They were gradually exchanged for stock until 1899. when only two hundred and thirty shares remained in the town treasury, including the one hundred and twenty shares owned by the town. At the annual town meeting that year the supervisor was instructed to sell them to the highest bidder, which was done May 15, 1899. and they were sold to the firm of which Senator Hopkins was the head, for seven dollars and fifty cents a share.
The road was turned over to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in 1870 and was completed by that company and has since been continually operated by it and has become one of the most profitable branches of the great Burlington system.
CHICAGO & IOWA RAILROAD.
This road appears to have been projected by Mr. Hinckley in 1865 or about that time. and was known as the Hinckley Road. The town records show that at the town meeting in 1866 a proposition to vote town bonds
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for one hundred thousand dollars in aid of this road was voted down by a vote of three hundred and sixty-nine for, to nine hundred and twenty-five against the bond issue. But the question came up again in the form of issuing bonds to buy stock in the road to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars. A special town election was held August 5, 1869, to determine whether the town of Aurora should subscribe for one hundred thousand dollars worth of stock in this road and issue bonds bearing ten per cent interest to pay for it.
At this election the town by a light vote ( eight hundred and thirteen for, to three hundred and ninety-four against ) saddled upon itself a debt of one hundred thousand dollars at ten per cent interest to pay for stock in a railroad to run through a very rich section of farming land, whose products were brought to Aurora by teams. The construction of the road was a direct and serious damage to the business interests of Aurora, for on its completion the farm products, which were formerly brought to Aurora for sale and exchange, were taken to the stations of Sugar Grove, Big Rock, Hinckley, Waterman and other places along the line, and were shipped directly to Chicago. From this time dates the beginning of the decline of business in River street, West Aurora, and to the date of the present writing the street has never recovered from the backset thus given it. The town, however, paid its ten per cent inter- est and finally wiped out the bonds and owned one hundred thousand dollars worth of stock in the new road. The company issued bonds which were taken by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which company went on and completed the road to St. Paul, and, of course, controlled its operation. Then a queer state of affairs was developed. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy wanted the stock in the Chicago & Iowa held by the town of Aurora, and as the company had built most of the road and had been operating it for several years it was taken for granted by most people that the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy was entitled to the stock. But Judge R. G. Montony, who had been employed by former Supervisor O. N. Shedd to look up the rights of the town and had spent a great deal of time in investigating this case, declared that the. Aurora stock was the only stock in the road that had ever been paid for, and that the town of Aurora virtually owned the road, subject to the bonded indebtedness. He failed, however, to arouse any interest in the matter, even Supervisor Reising, who was also a large stockholder in the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy, thought it was not worth while to oppose the wishes of the railroad. The editor of the Aurora Herald, however, thought differently and called a public meeting, to be held in the editorial rooms of the Herald to consider the matter. This meeting was attended by A. Somarindyck, T. H. Day and Pierce Burton. The subject was explained and the "meeting" adjourned to the next night, and an effort was made during the next day to interest others. The adjourned meeting was attended by three or four others, and it was decided to issue a little "dodger" explaining the condition of affairs and urging all voters to be on hand at the appointed hour on the approaching town meeting day to vote on disposing of the stock. It was also decided to try to adopt a resolution at this meeting to take the stock out of the honds of the supervisor and put it in charge of a committee with instruc- tions to sell it to the highest bidder. A somewhat vigorons "dodger" was
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printed and circulated throughout the town, resulting in the biggest town meeting in the history of the town. The island in front of the town hall was literally packed with voters, who by a large majority adopted the resolutions, only a few stepped to one side, showing they favored giving the stock to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The town meeting was held April 5, 1881, and the resolution adopted named as a committee, A. Somarindyck, Alonzo George, Holmes Miller, C. S. Hoyt, John Reising, T. H. Day, Allen W. Stolp, together with the supervisor and town clerk, to sell the stock.
In due course of time the committee advertised the stock for sale and tried to interest some Wall street parties, as no one in Aurora wanted to buy a railroad with such a big debt. The result was that on the day of sale there were two bidders, who gradually run up the price to one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, and it was bid in at that price by Mr. Head, of Chicago, who paid that sum in cash. Just how much he made the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy pay him has never been made public, but it is surmised that he secured a good profit on his purchase, as that road has since held undisputed possession. These circumstances are given here in detail to illustrate the historic fact that three or four determined citizens can, by united and well directed, active effort, overcome the inertia of regular officials and accomplish almost any desired result for the good of the community. First let the result aimed at be right for "thrice armed is he whose cause is just," and there is but little danger of failure.
The town of Aurora had now (1881) one hundred and thirty thousand dollars cash in the treasury, and didn't know what to do with it. Some sug- gested building a township high school, as the law provides, others a fine new town hall, others investing the money so the interest would pay the town taxes. Other schemes were mentioned, but after deliberating a year or more it was finally decided to use five thousand dollars for the annual expenses of the town, so no town taxes were levied that year, and to appropriate twenty- five thousand dollars to gravel the public highways outside the city limits, and to appropriate one hundred thousand dollars for new iron or steel bridges, which were afterward constructed across the river at North avenue to River street, Fox street to Downer place across the island and from New York street to Walnut street, above the dam. These bridges, at this writing ( 1908) are in fair condition, although heavy street cars have been running over the Fox street bridge for many years, and it is claimed weakened them, for they were designed for the use of only horses, wagons, etc. An effort is now being made to have cement bridges constructed at the island crossing.
NORTH-WESTERN RAILROAD.
What is now the North-Western Railroad was the first railroad in Kane county, and got as far as Fox river at Geneva in 1850. It built a branch to Batavia in 1873 and to Aurora in 1883. coming down the west side of the river. The Aurora branch has done a remarkably good business ever since it was completed.
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ELGIN, JOLIET & EASTERN.
What is now the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern was constructed in 1886 between Aurora and Joliet, and was called the Joliet, Aurora & Northern. It changed its name and management in 1887, built a bridge across the Fox river and a depot on the west side at the corner of South street and Garfield avenue. It has done a good freight business,, but has made no effort to carry many passengers, except to run one train a day each way.
THE ILLINOIS, IOWA & MINNESOTA RAILROAD.
The Illinois, Iowa & Minnesota Railroad was constructed between Aurora and Rockford in 1904-5-6, and is said to be the property of the United States Steel Company, and its chief business is the transportation of the products of the steel mills received over the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern.
MANUFACTURING IN AURORA.
Every inland town which has ambitions to grow turns its attention to manufacturing, or, to speak more correctly, tries to induce others to do manu- facturing in their locality. Owners of land argue that the location of an institution near them which employs laborers might enable them to sell lots to the workmen. These workmen would create a demand for groceries, meat markets and the like, which would require lots to build stores on, and so the town would grow and the land owners reap the harvest. The early settlers of Aurora were quick to perceive these advantages and made such successful efforts in this direction that the town has grown to be quite a manufacturing center.
THIE C., B. & Q. SHOPS.
Among the first of these institutions to be located here were the repair shops of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The Aurora projectors of the road had influence enough to locate the shops here, which was done in 1855. shortly after the road was in running order, with the aid of private subscriptions amounting to $6.705.75. These shops were destroyed by fire on Christmas night, 1863. but were partially rebuilt. The officials of the road soon discovered that they did not have room enough in Aurora for their shops and proposed to move them to some place where more land could be obtained. This met with a protest of Aurora business men, who labored long with the officials to retain the shops here, but they had no land and the land in the immediate vicinity of the shops was owned by numerous individuals and was occupied by buildings of various kinds. Finally as an ultimatum J. M. Walker, president of the C., B. & Q., submitted a proposition to the people of Aurora early in 1867 to the effect that the company would pay $500 an acre for thirty acres, exclusive of the buildings, although the property was worth more than four times that sum. At the regular annual town meeting, April 2, 1867, of which R. C. Mix was moderator. Judge Parks introduced a resolution to the
4
STOLPS ISLAND, AURORA, LOOKING FROM THE FOX STREET HILL, 1867.
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effect that the sum of $50,000 be raised by a bond issue, the money to be used for the purchase of land for the C., B. & Q. shops, his claim being that the law authorized the raising of any amount of money for "the good of the town," and this project came under that head.
J. D. Dunning moved to amend the resolution by adding that the whole amount should be raised by taxation in three years. This was promptly laid on the table on motion of Judge Parks. The motion was then "carried by a large majority," the record says, and afterwards gives the vote as 1.524 for, to 79 against the proposition. After much difficulty with the owners the neces- sary land was purchased and turned over to the C., B. & Q. at a cost of about $88,000. The deficit after selling the buildings was $12,000, which was made up by the city issuing bonds to that amount. So the shops were permanently located here and have aided more than any one other thing in building up the town. The wages of the employes have gone into the construction and maintenance of the town, while the profits of the work, if any, have gone into the capacious maw of the "Burlington System." The number of employes varies with the work on hand, sometimes running up to fifteen hundred.
Hoyt Brothers Manufacturing Company. Among the other earlier fac- tories was that of the Hoyt Brothers Manufacturing Company, originally started in 1855 by Carter & Reeves for the manufacture of reapers. These were succeeded about 1858 by Pinney & Stevens, then by Carter & Pinney, and in 1868 by R. S. Carter & Company, who conducted a general jobbing and constructing business, and in 1869 by the Hoyts. These continued the busi- ness of making wood-working machinery until the death of Charles L. and Lucius Hoyt, when the shops were bought by the American Wood Working Machinery Company, which now operates them.
The Aurora Silver Plate Manufacturing Company was organized in 1869-70 and was burnt out the first year after commencing work. It was rebuilt at once and has made a large amount of silver-plated ware, which has been sold in all parts of the West. Although they have a fine building to show, the original stockholders have not grown wealthy from their investment.
The Aurora W'atch Company was organized in 1883 and erected a fine factory on South LaSalle street. It made excellent watches, but after most of the original stockholders lost all or nearly all they invested, the plant was sold to a company manufacturing watches in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who moved the machinery there. The building was afterward leased by the Aurora Corset Company, who are now successfully operating.
The Frazier Road Cart Factory, established in 1881 by W. S. Frazier, continues to be one of the flourishing institutions of the city, conducted now by his sons, W. S. and E. S. Frazier.
The American Well Wl'orks is another of Aurora's successful institutions, which has grown to large proportions and ships its products, well sinking machines, to all parts of the world.
The Chicago & Aurora Smelting & Refining Company was the name of one of the companies which was induced to come to Aurora through a cash donation. Subscriptions were made chiefly by Aurora business men, amount- ing to $12,000 or $15.000, and paid over to the company, who bought land on
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the east side of Fox river near North Aurora in 1882 and erected elaborate smelting works, bringing bullion from western mines and separating the gold and silver from the lead and other metals. They did a profitable business for twelve or fifteen years and then sold out to the "Trust" ( The American Smelting & Refining Company ), which closed up the works here. The build- ings remained idle until 1907, when they were purchased by Love Brothers and are now used as a portion of their iron works. The location has been named "Lovedale."
LOVE BROTHERS' IRON WORKS.
This is one of Aurora's very own successful institutions, it having grown up here from almost nothing to one of the great iron industries of the West. In 1878 John P. Love and Joy Love, brothers, established a small foundry on Pierce street. In 1882 they moved to the corner of Clark and Water streets. where, besides doing general foundry work, they made a specialty of archi- tectural iron. This work has grown to such an extent that they acquired a controlling interest in the Aurora Iron Works, at the corner of Spruce street and Highland avenue, and in 1907 purchased the old Smelting Works property. renamed it "Lovedale." built a suspension bridge across the river to reach the Batavia street car line. and are doing a flourishing business there.
RATHBONE, SARD & CO. STOVE WORKS.
This is one of the successful institutions which was located in Aurora by ineans of a subsidy or bonus. In September. 1889, a meeting of citizens appointed a committee to negotiate with Rathbone, Sard & Company. of Albany, New York, who had determined to locate a branch of their stove works somewhere in the West. This committee consisted of C. L. Hoyt. T. N. Holden and J. B. Arnold. That they succeeded in accomplishing the . purpose for which they were appointed indicates the ability of the committee. After numerous interviews with the proprietors of the stove works and several visits by them to Aurora, the committee offered them fifteen acres of land free, $60,000 in cash, switches, sidetracks, etc., which took about ten acres more, agreed to extend the water mains, gas mains and street railway to the works, secure equal freight rates with Joliet, which was also after the works. The company accepted the proposition as a little better than offered by either Joliet or Elgin. "In return," says a report of the committee published in the Daily Express of October 1, 1883. "the stove company agree to expend $350.000 in buildings in Aurora by the first of next June to this fall. com- mence the foundation of the shops and warehouses enough to give employment to five hundred men, and to increase the works until the whole plant was located here." The manner in which the money was raised was unique and became known throughout the country as "The Aurora Plan." It was this: The committee secured options on about one hundred and fifty acres of land on the line of the C., B. & Q. near the "Y," crossing south of the city. Of this fifteen acres were to be given to the stove works. ten were reserved for other possible manufacturers, ten more were to be appropriated for sidetracks,
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and the remainder to be cut up into five hundred city lots of about one-sixth of an acre each. These it was proposed to sell at the uniform price of $200, although they would soon be worth from $200 to $600, according to location. "These five hundred lots would bring $100,000, which would pay for the land, about $30,000, pay the bonus of $60,000, pay for the sidetracks, and the lots themselves would within a year be worth to the purchaser more than he pays for them now." Such was the rosy picture painted by the committee, and it is not strange that at a public meeting held to hear the report half of the lots were sold in thirty minutes and the other half the next day by a canvass of the city, the purchasers numbering nearly three hundred. The lots were apportioned by chance, the number of a lot and the name of a pur- chaser being drawn from different boxes at the same time until all the lots were disposed of.
The works were constructed and have been in operation since, but most of those who subscribed for lots still have them on hand.
Aurora IFoolen Mills. In 1837 J. G. Stolp came to Aurora from Onon- daga county, New York, with $300 in his pocket, which he had earned by working six years in an old woolen mill in Marcellus, New York. His uncle, Frederick Stolp, had preceded him and laid claim to all the land on Stolp's Island for Joseph G. in 1835. Joseph G. arrived here in 1837 and erected a woolen mill on the north end of the island and put in machinery for wool carding and cloth dressing. He continued business in this location until 1849, when he erected a large brick woolen factory, 103x35 feet, five stories high, and put in four looms. In 1858 he erected an addition, 75x35 feet, also five stories high. In these buildings he continued the manufacture of woolen cloth until 1887, when the machinery was sold and the building rented to several small manufactories of various kinds. The building was destroyed by fire February 11, 1906.
The original carding mill at the north end of the island was sold to Mr. Fyfe, who converted it into a grist mill, which was greatly damaged by the flood of 1857 and was afterward removed to make room for the Holly pumps for the city.
The City Mills occupy the site of the first mill erected by the McCarty's in 1834. In 1854 the mill was purchased by Charles Gill. It has since been owned by several proprietors, including Jameson & Russell, Jameson & Sheets and C. C. Sheets. It was seriously damaged by the flood of February 8, 1887, and by fire June 29, 1887, but was afterwards rebuilt in first-class shape and has done a good business ever since.
Blackhawk Mills were erected in 1842 by R. C. Mix for Charles Hoyt and were capable of making one hundred and fifty barrels of flour a day. For a long time this mill supplied flour for a large portion of the Northwest and sometimes made shipments to New York. The mill was idle for many years after 1870, as the Hoyt Brothers used the water power in their machine works. Later the site was covered by the buildings of the American Wood Working Machinery Company, the successors of Hoyt Brothers.
The Aurora Corset Company was organized in 1895 with a capital stock of $50.000. It occupied the building erected by the Attrora Watch Company,
KANE COUNTY HISTORY
at the south end of LaSalle street, where exclusive attention was given to the manufacture of corsets. "The Henderson" and "La Princess" being the leading patterns. In 1908 the factory employed three hundred hands and manufac- tured about $500,000 worth of goods annually. The officers of the company at that time were: S. D. Seamons, president; E. W. Trask, secretary; J. O. Mason, treasurer ; L. J. Mead, manager : F. A. Hollister. superintendent. The stock is owned entirely by residents of Aurora.
The Wilcox Manufacturing Company was originally incorporated in 1880 with a capital stock of $6.000. for the purpose of making carpet sweepers. It was reincorporated in 1894 and the capital increased to $24.000. The carpet sweeper was manufactured for several years. Later it commenced the manu- facture of the original Richards Door Hanger. The first were made to attach to the top of parlor doors. Later it developed all varieties of door hangers and largely increased its works, adding the making of the overhead carrying system, roller store ladders. mounted grindstones, wire stretchers, elevator gates, fire door equipments and a large number of hardware specialties, employ- ing one hundred and fifty hands. The officers in 1908 were: D. W. Simpson, president and treasurer ; L. R. Simpson, vice president and secretary.
The Richards Manufacturing Company was incorporated and erected a factory in 1903. Enlarged in 1905 with a capital stock of $100,000, employing one hundred and fifty hands in the manufacture of hardware specialties, such as door hangers of every kind, mounted grindstones, wagon jacks, door hinges, etc. The shops are located on six acres of ground near the main line of the C., B. & Q. R. R. west of the river, and their salesmen cover the entire United States, Canada and parts of Europe. In 1908 the officials of the company were: John H. Pease, president ; O. N. Staley, vice president ; H. O. Spencer, treasurer ; and W. H. Fitch, secretary and manager.
Western Il'heeled Scraper Works. This institution was moved from Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. in 1890, and the expense paid in about the same manner as pursued in raising money for the stove works. Land was bought in the northeast part of town, south of the Burlington tracks, cut up into lots and sold. The surplus of about $30,000 after paying for the land was presented to the Scraper Works Company, which went toward the expense of moving fromn Mt. Pleasant and erecting the factory buildings. The institution has grown to be the second largest in the city. the C., B. & Q. shops being the largest. It manufactures wheeled scrapers, dump cars, wheelbarrows and such tools as are used in grading roads, railroads, etc. It furnished much of the machinery used in digging the Panama canal, which was supplied in the face of competition with the entire world. The number of employes varies with the amount of contracts on hand, running sometimes as high as seven hundred. Captain C. H. Smith is the president and principal stockholder.
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