USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 52
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The Aurora Cotton Mills were projected in 1883 and started manufac- turing in October. 1884. The promoters of this company desired a location near Chicago, which was and still is the central market in the United States for the distribution of cotton goods, but did not want to be located in the city because of the troubles and consequent interruptions of operation due to labor agitation and the resulting unrest which always exists in large cities. All
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available locations within one hundred miles of Chicago were considered and Aurora was finally decided upon as the most advantageous site for the require- ments of the business. The success of this industry has proved the wisdom of the choice of location. The promoters of the Aurora Cotton Mills were Messrs. R. M., S. F. and N. R. Hobbs, brothers, the latter having been a resident of Aurora for a number of years. The capital stock was $300,000. The capacity of the mills was fifteen thousand spindles and four hundred looms. The goods manufactured were fine brown sheetings. The first board of directors were : S. F. Hobbs, N. R. Hobbs, W. W. Bishop, Joseph Reising. Alonzo George, J. O. Curry, John VanNortwick, John Stewart, C. C. Earle, A. J. Hopkins. J. J. Davis. The first officers were: W. W. Bishop, president ; Alonzo George, vice president; J. J. Davis, secretary ; and S. F. Hobbs, treasurer. Under this management the mills were operated until 1886, when S. F. Hobbs resigned and Alonzo George was made treasurer. Mr. George held this office until 1888, when R. M. Hobbs was made treasurer. Mr. Hobbs filled this office until his death in October, 1890, when E. S. Hobbs was made the treasurer and manager. In 1892 the capital stock was increased from $300,000 to $500,000 and the capacity of mills doubled, making thirty-two thousand spindles and eight hundred looms. There were about four hundred hands employed in 1908, the annual pay roll in the same year was about $120.000, and the annual output about six million yards. The goods are made under the name of "Aurora Sheetings" and are furnished in all widths from a yard to eleven quarters wide. in both bleached and brown. In 1908 the officers were: E. W. Trask, president; N. C. Simmons, vice president ; J. J. Davis, board secretary ; E. F. Beaupre, company secretary ; E. S. Hobbs, treasurer. The entire board of directors in 1908 were: E. W. Trask, N. C. Simmons, J. J. Davis, E. S. Hobbs. A. J. Hopkins, H. L. McWethy, A. J. Hobbs, H. R. Tanner, Milo Pierce, William George. C. W. Marshall.
The New Haven Wire Goods Factory & Cooperage. In the year 1890 some Chicago men wanted to come to Aurora to establish a manufactory of gas engines and other things. They bargained for the Smedly farm, then owned by Dr. Gillette, in the northwest corner of the city, and laid out an addition called the Baker & Morton addition, for these were the men who were to erect the proposed factory. For some reason they failed to pay for the property and it reverted back to Dr. Gillette. His friends thereupon organized a syndi- cate, bought the addition, sold off the lots, took the surplus and built a very nice factory at a cost of about $30,000, which was presented to the New Haven Wire Goods Company, then looking for a location, which ran a year or so and failed. The factory and machinery were sold at an assignee's sale and bought in by the company organized by E. W. Hall for about $10,000. They ran it for a few months. making the same goods, wire fencing, door mats and a few kitchen utensils, when a fire destroyed a portion of the building and machinery. The manufacturing was suspended and never resumed. The Aurora Cooperage Company was then organized, with C. E. Mann, of Geneva, as manager, which bought the factory, and Mr. Mann moved some cooper's machinery from Geneva into it and continued the manufacture of barrels and butter tubs in large quantities. This factory lost money continually until
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1896, when W. E. Gillette was made manager, since which time the factory has been doing prosperous business, and Mr. Gillette has become owner of nearly all capital stock.
The Stevens-Adamson Manufacturing Company was organized in Aurora in 1901 for the manufacture of machinery and special appliances for the mechanical handling of material of all kinds in bulk or packages, such as belt conveyors, steel and cast iron pan conveyors, pivotal bucket carriers, bucket elevators, screening machinery, and power transmission appliances, mining cars and complete coal handling equipments. Soon after organization their machinery was used by all the large mines of this country. Mexico and Canada, as well as in many cement plants, sand and gravel handling plants, quarries and crushed stone plants, fertilizer works. grain elevators, and in fact all plants where the handling of material is a large item. The maximum number of employes is two hundred. the capital stock $200.000, fully paid up, the annual output $500,000. When first started the plant occupied three acres, but the number is increased to about seventeen acres. The officials in 1908: W. W. Stevens, president ; F. G. Adamson, vice president and treas- urer ; D. B. Pierson, secretary ; R. W. Dull, chief engineer.
The Pictorial Printing Company was incorporated April 17, 1878. at which time the company commenced business in Chicago. In 1903 it erected and moved into a large building on Middle avenue, Aurora, giving 125,000 square feet of flooring especially adapted to their business, which is chiefly special printing for the drug trade. and it claims to be the largest exclusive drug printing house in the world. Since moving to Aurora the plant has been greatly enlarged and more modern appliances added. so that in addition to printing the works did electrotyping. lithographing, embossing, metal stamp- ing, and manufactured paper boxes of all kinds and shapes, giving employment to about three hundred people and doing a half million dollars' worth of business annually. The officers of the company in 1908 were: O. P. Bassett. of Hinsdale. president : C. B. Philips, vice president and manager : and J. W. Hunt. secretary.
The Big Stone Shop. Everybody who has been in Aurora has seen the Big Stone Shop at the corner of River street and Downer place, or as the old histories put it. "at the corner of Mill street and River street." It was built by E. & A. Woodworth, who first located a small blacksmith shop on the same site in 1843 and continued a prosperous business until May, 1856, when work on the big shop was begun. It is 100x68 feet and four stories high. It was completed in September, 1857. and dedicated with a grand ball, "which was attended by all the elite within fifty miles," says one historian. That event is remembered now by some of the old settlers. George M. Hollenback being one of the dancers. The factory employed as high as two hundred and fifty men and kept on through the panic of 1857 with one hundred men. But in 1859 the strain became too great and the firm failed with a tremendous crash. Mix & Plum were the assignees. In 1860 the property was sold to Taylor. Butterworth Company, who carried on the business until 1865, when it passed into the hands of Keith. Snell & Company, and it was idle most of the time
M
OLD STONE SCHOOL HOUSE, WEST AURORA.
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until 1881, when it went into the control of W. S. Frazier & Company, who have conducted a successful business there ever since.
The Fox River Butter Company. This company was organized in 1885 and moved its business to Aurora in 1891, occupying a brick building near the Burlington freight house on North Broadway. In 1905 it erected a large building on the Burlington track between Main and New York streets. It controls hundreds of butter factories in this state and throughout the North- west and is said to be the largest producer of butter in the world, its product amounting to several million dollars' worth annually. In 1908 the officers were: C. S. Kilbourne, president; W. H. Holmes, vice president ; N. M. Hutchison, treasurer ; and Judd Chapman, secretary.
Aurora Automatic Machinery Company, Manufacturers of Gasoline Motors and Pneumatic Tools. This business was organized in September, 1893, by A. Levedahl and C. E. Erickson. under the firm name of Automatic Machinery Company. They started with two men and in the spring of 1894 Messrs. Ball and Florsheim were admitted as partners, the number of employes being increased to twenty-two. In March, 1895, the company was incor- porated under the name of "Aurora Automatic Machinery Company," with a capital stock of $30,000, the pay roll showing fifty-three employes. In May, 1895, the capitalization was increased to $50,000 and a three-story factory building, 52×150 feet. erected. The business steadily increased and in 1902 two additional stories were added to the building and the capital stock increased to $100.000. In July, 1904. the capital stock was increased to $250,000. In May, 1905, the capital stock was increased to $500,000, and in December. 1906. the adjoining large plant of the Chicago Corset Company was purchased and three hundred and fifty skillful mechanics employed.
THIE AURORA GAS-LIGHT COMPANY.
This company, which has grown to be the second largest of its kind in Illinois, had a very modest beginning. The "Aurora Gas-Light Company" was incorporated February, 1861, with the following named Aurora men as incorporators: Wm. H. Hawkins. Lorenzo D. Brady, Wm. B. Allen, Albert Jenks. Ira A. W. Buck, O. D. Howell. John S. Hawley. Wm. V. Plum. Chas. L. Hoyt and Edward Huntoon. "their successors, associates, etc., in perpetual succession." They were given power "to lay pipes for the purpose of con- ducting the gas in any of the streets. avenues, public grounds or other places in said city or elsewhere." For the period of twenty years they were to have the exclusive right of supplying the city with gas. None of the gentlemen named knew anything about the manufacture of gas, but all had the welfare of the city at heart. Notwithstanding the favorable terms of the franchise, they were unable to find anyone willing to undertake to put in the gas works. owing, doubtless, to the war, until the latter part of 1867, when the franchise was sold to R. H. Whiting, of Galesburg, who had successfully constructed gas works there. Mr. Whiting made a contract with the city whereby the city agreed to erect lamp posts "on all the streets, at the usual distances apart. where ever the company lay their ma'n pipes" and to pay therefor at the
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"yearly average paid for gas in Rock Island, Rockford, Bloomington, Jack- sonville and Galesburg." This contract was signed November 20, 1867, and the works were in operation the next year. Mr. I. B. Copley was put in charge of the works here as manager. The price of gas to private consumers was $4.50 per thousand cubic feet. In 1881 the contract for street lighting expired and a contract was made with the Aurora Electric Light & Power Company for lighting the streets with sixteen two thousand candle power electric lamps for five years at $6.000 a year. When that contract expired the city put in an electric lighting plant of its own, a detail of account of which is given elsewhere.
Shortly after this event Mr. Whiting, who owned the controlling interest in the gas works, placed liis nephew in charge as manager here. He under- took some new experiments in the manufacture of gas, which resulted in furnishing a very poor quality of gas to consumers. The dissatisfaction was so great that a new company was organized, which made arrangements with a Mr. English to manufacture water gas. On the 16th of January, 1888, a franchise was given by the city council to the Excelsior Gas Company, giving it "permission and authority to construct, maintain and operate gas works in the city of Aurora." giving all the rights previously given to the Aurora Gas Company. The incorporators were: Mr. English. E. W. Trask, T. H. Day, J. H. Pease, S. D. Seamons, W. S. Beaupre, J. O. Mason, E. A. Bradley, J. O. Curry, O. D. Powell, C. C. Smith. E. S. Hobbs, H. H. Evans and others, all except Mr. English being Aurora business men. A very fair quality of water gas was furnished at $1.50 per thousand feet. Mains were rapidly hid in many of the streets and many old customers were making con- tracts with the new company. The old company, consisting of Whiting & Copley, became discouraged and wanted to sell out, and it is reported on good authority that Mr. Copley offered to give the stock to anybody who would release him from his obligations incurred for the gas company.
At this point a new figure appeared upon the scene. Ira Clifton Copley, son of Ira B., had just graduated from Yale College and Law School and came to Aurora to open a law office. He said to his father. "Don't give your stock away ; let me use it." He then wrote to Mr. Whiting, offering to "give or take" a certain price for the stock. Mr. Whiting "took," so young Copley bought the Whiting stock and deposited it in the First National Bank, together with his father's stock, for security, and borrowed money enough to pay off Whiting. He then ( 1891) proposed to the Excelsior Gas Company to con- solidate, which was done on terms agreeable to both parties, and the price of gas was reduced to $1.25. Meanwhile he, having been made manager, was learning by practical experience how to make and distribute gas, until he became not only an expert but a veritable Napoleon in the manufacture and distribution of gas. He adopted all the latest improved methods in the manu- facture of gas. extended the mains liberally in all streets where customers were likely, used every effort to increase the use of gas for cooking and light- ing. created a home market for coke and made the best quality of gas possible. His company took over the Aurora Electric Light & Power Company in 1891 and conducted it in connection with the gas business. In 1901 it extended the
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gas mains to North Aurora, Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles, and furnished the gas from Aurora to supply them, thus giving these places all the advan- tages of having gas plants of their own. The name of the company was then changed to the Fox River Light, Heat & Power Company. In 1900 Mr. Copley constructed a gas plant in LaGrange, issuing bonds to pay a part of the expense. He in connection with Mr. W. W. Tracy and Colonel F. W. Bennitt in 1895 had bought the Joliet gas plant and afterwards extended its usefulness in that city and laid mains to Aurora through Plainfield; then extended the Aurora mains to Elgin, acquired that gas plant, and finally, in 1905. consolidated all four companies into the "Western United Gas & Electric Company," and its mains were extended so as to supply gas to thirty different cities and villages in northern Illinois, representing an investment of $7.000.000.
At the present writing ( 1908) plans are being made to construct a million-dollar gas plant at Joliet to supply gas for the whole system.
TELEPHONES.
Chicago Telephone Company. A franchise was granted the company by the Aurora city council September 6, 1881, giving permission to set poles, string wires, etc., on the streets of the city under certain limitations and "to perpetually maintain the same in good order." Under this provision the company claims a perpetual franchise for the use of the streets.
Interstate Telephone Company. On August 7, 1899, the council granted a franchise to the Northwestern Telephone Company for the same purposes as that granted the Chicago Telephone Company, but the franchise is limited to twenty years and provides that the company must pay the city $1 per year for each phone in use in the city. The number of phones paid for runs from fourteen to sixteen hundred a year.
STREET RAILWAYS.
Horse Railroad. A franchise was granted June 19, 1882, to H. H. Evans, W. H. Watson, E. W. Trask. Adoniram Riddle and John H. Loucks for the construction and operation of a horse railroad on certain streets in the city. The road was completed and mules furnished the power patiently until September, 1890, when the road and all its appurtenances was sold to the Aurora Street Railway Company, which rebuilt the road as soon as possible and put in a well equipped electric railway.
As soon as the line was in good running order it was extended to Geneva to connect with the line running south from Elgin.
In 1897 a franchise was granted the Aurora, Yorkville and Morris Rail- way Company to construct and operate its road on certain streets in Aurora. This line was soon running to Yorkville.
The Aurora. Wheaton & Chicago was given a franchise in 1899 and shortly afterwards changed its name to the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railway Company. and all the street railways in town were consolidated under one management with that name and sold to a syndicate of capitalists from Cleve-
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land, Ohio, which at present writing ( 1908) is operating the system very successfully.
Aurora, DeKalb & Rockford Raikvay. On May 29. 1902, an ordinance was passed granting permission to this company to buy its tracks on certain streets in Aurora. The franchise was granted to V. A. Watkins, Wm. George, R. S. Vivian and Wm. P. Kapf on certain conditions, one of which was that they were to pay into the city treasury the sum of $10,000, which was done within a year. The roadhed was graded and the track laid to the city limits early in 1907 and some work done in the city streets. Then came a series of injunctions. instigated, it was claimed, by the old company, prohibiting the road from being built on Walnut street. then on Galena street, and at present writing the suits are still undecided. although the material has been on the ground for over a year. The road from DeKalb to Aurora is run daily. the power used being gasoline motors, with an occasional steam locomotive to haul freight trains.
Early Electric Road and Telephones. U. P. Hord tells some interesting stories about his early experience with street railways and telephones. He was interested in getting the franchise for the proposed street railway in Aurora in place of the old mule lines and found some opposition which is amusing in these days. One old settler said: "Electricity may do to run cars where the street is levei, but you can never climb Downer place hill with it. You must have a horse or a mule to pull the car up the hill." Mr. Hord was elected alderman about this time and was so enthusiastic over the new power that he pushed an ordinance through the council giving the electric cars the right to run over the bridges at the rate of fifteen miles per hour, while at the same time it prohibited horses from being driven across the bridges faster than a walk under a penal fine of five dollars.
John Jameson, who was then mayor, pointed out the inconsistency of the new ordinance and had the council correct it before he would sign it.
When the telephone first came into use Mr. Hord was anxious to have the line extended to Montgomery Mills, in which he was then interested. and volunteered to go around with the young solicitor from Chicago to help get subscribers for phones in Aurora. He says it took ten days to get ten sub- scribers. "What use would this be to us?" said the president of one of the banks. I can't imagine what good one of them things could do a bank." Lyman Baldwin, of the firm of Laurence & Baldwin, dealers in dry goods, groceries, etc., said : "I wouldn't have one of them things in the store if you would put it in for nothing. The clerks would neglect their business and be fooling with the thing all the time trying to call up their friends around town." In view of the fact that there are about four thousand telephones now in Aurora, there appears to have been a change of views on the subject.
SCHOOLS.
EAST SIDE.
A Frenchman writing on the causes of superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race comes to the conclusion that it is due to the general education of the
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people. Education makes not only better soldiers but better farmers, better mechanics, and fits men and women better for all the duties of life. The fine school buildings of the present day and the immense amount of money expended for the support of schools makes old settlers wonder what kind of people will result when children educated in our present public schools become leaders of society, church and state. The Aurora schools, which of late years have absorbed about forty per cent of the taxes raised, were not always at the top grade.
History differs as to where, when and by whom the first school in Aurora was taught. Samuel McCarty's recollection was that the first school was taught by a lady on North Broadway in the year 1836, for a month or so, and the next one in a slab building on the southwest corner of Main street and Broadway, in the latter part of the same year. Burr Winton stated in 1884, we are informed by Pliney Durant, that the first school was taught on the east side "in a slab shanty near the river banks by a man named Livings, from Syracuse, New York, who undertook to teach three months on the pledge of twenty-five children at $1.50 each. The amount was pledged, but when the little folks were mustered their number was found to be only fourteen." Measles soon broke up the school and Livings went to Chicago and was reported to have fallen into the hands of gamblers, who stripped him of all his money and he committed suicide. Under the circumstances it is difficult to imagine that he had a great amount of money.
It is also claimed that another slab schoolhouse was built around a tree where the Brady residence now stands and a Miss Julia Brown became teacher in 1836. In 1839 a larger house was erected in what is now Lincoln Park, which served as a schoolhouse and was also used for religious and political meetings. This building was so used until 1851, when it was sold to Wright & Company for $60 "and $3.00 for the stove pipe." The district seems to have been considerably agitated over the location of the new building, but finally it was erected on lots 8, 9 and 10, block 20, purchased from M. M. Chase, the cost of the structure being $950, exclusive of the inside work. A tax of one per cent was voted to complete the building, subscriptions having been made to erect the building. This was in 1851. In 1854 it was found necessary to enlarge the building, and in the same year the increasing popu- lation made another school building in the southern part of the city necessary ; then another in the north part of the city; then, in 1862, two more small build- ings on the lot where the Center school now stands. The jump from the slab house built around a tree to the present magnificent brick school buildings was not made in a day, nor without a great struggle. The law giving school dis- tricts and boards of education the authority to issue bonds and raise money to erect school buildings when authorized by a vote of the school district is responsible for the great improvement in the character of the buildings erected for school purposes. Then with such strong characters as L. D. Brady, E. R. Allen, S. P. Keyes and others on the school board, good schoolhouses were erected wherever necessary. The four-story Center school, on Main, Root and New York streets, was begun in 1864 and completed in 1866 at a cost of about $70,000. The bonds issued for it bore ten per cent interest. The
KANE COUNTY HISTORY
Brady school, at the corner of Union and Liberty streets, was built in 1869 at a cost of $35.000, and was named in honor of Hon. L. D. Brady. The Young school, named in honor of Dr. D. W. Young. at the corner of Fifth street and Center avenue. was completed in 1875 at the cost of $25,000. The bonds for this school bore eight per cent interest. Since then a schoolhouse has been erected at the corner of New York and Smith streets; one on Mountain and High streets, known as the Indian Creek school, and an eight-room brick on Marion avenue near Lincoln avenue. These with half a dozen parochial schools afford ample facilities for education for the present population of the east side.
HIGH SCHOOL.
In 1890 a high school was erected on the lot with the Center school at an expense of $45,000. This was found at the end of ten years to be wholly inadequate to accommodate pupils desiring to take a high school course and the board of education has repeatedly asked the voters to authorize the con- struction of another building, but the proposition has been voted down every tine. At present there are only $2.000 in bonds outstanding and these will be cancelled during the year 1908. So the district is out of debt.
The school superintendents on the east side were: M. Tabor, 1851 to 1855; P. P. Heywood. 1855 to 1864; W. A. Jones. 1864 to 1869; W. B. Powell. 1869 to 1885: N. A. Prentiss. 1885 to 1889: J. H. Freeman, 1889 to 1894; C. M1. Bardwell. 1894 to date.
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