USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 60
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SPEECHMAKING AT FOUNTAIN SQUARE, JULY 4TH, ABOUT WAR TIME.
DECORATION DAY, FOUNTAIN SQUARE, ELGIN, IN THIE '70S.
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of Company E, with the aid of two or three others, wheel around a deserted gun of one of the captured batteries and fire it into the disordered ranks of the retreating foe. The ground in our front is literally carpeted with enemies slain and wounded. The end of the campaign was the capture of Atlanta. And now let us say, "Hail to the future! To the past we can never say farewell."
Following the Civil war Elgin took a new lease of life and entered into an era of prosperity that has not since abated. The immediate cause of this new beginning was the location here of the watch factory, which had been secured in 1864, and went into its first building on the present site in 1866. It first occupied a building on the river bank, just back of where the First National Bank building now stands.
A group of men, including B. W. Raymond. A. J. Joslyn, S. Wilcox, Dr. Joseph Tefft, Henry Sherman and others, became the factor at this time in advancing the industries of the growing city. In 1868 they secured the loca- tion of the asylum, and had placed the Elgin Academy on a firm basis. Com- mon schools were also established. Elgin now saw its destiny as an industrial city. The possibilities for dairying also now began to be seen, and everything took an upward turn. New buildings began to be erected in the business district and new merchants to open their stores.
In 1866 the Borden Condensed Milk Factory was located here and in 1870 employed forty persons. The Elgin Iron Works employed twenty-five opera- tives. The Elgin Butter Factory opened in 1870. The Elgin Packing Com- pany began business about 1869 and sold three hundred thousand cans of packed fruits and vegetables that year. The Phoenix Foundry was then op- erated by William F. Sylla. Spillard's tannery employed twelve persons. A plow factory was started in 1870. In 1873 Wilder & Joslyn began making brick, and in 1875 made three million. A shoe factory was opened in 1873 by Groce Bros. & Co. A chewing gum factory was started by Vollor & Co. in 1875; a soap factory by W. H. Herrick; a cotton batting establishment by G. W. Renwick & Son.
A fine fountain was, in 1873, placed on Fountain Square (before that time known as Market Square). Town's block was built about 1873, but the north half was destroyed by fire in 1874 and at once rebuilt as it now stands. A library was established in 1872. In 1873 a writer of that year wrote: "A meeting of citizens has been held at the courthouse in which the unsuitable- ness and ruinous condition of the old buildings now used as schoolhouses was characterized in strong terms, and an informal recommendation made to build two schoolhouses worth together seventy-five thousand to eighty thousand dollars." Three thousand dollars for a library was collected in 1873 by taxa- tion. From 1870 to 1875 new churches were built on every side. In 1871 the Chicago & Pacific Railway ( now the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- way) was run through the city. In 1871 a gas company was organized, and the old candles and lamps discarded. The village was becoming a city in fact
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as well as by incorporation. The people had become confident the place was to be a city of consequence-not a country town.
In 1871 the population was five thousand. four hundred and forty-one. In 1873 it was given as seventy-three hundred; in 1874 as eight thousand. Elgin had now cast off her swaddling clothes and was a well advanced youth- ful city. It continued to grow by natural increase of its factories and busi- ness. The watch factory nearly every year added to its force and buildings. other small industries came in. and by 1880 Elgin had become a city of ten thousand people.
In 1882 the D. C. Cook Publishing Company removed their entire plant to Elgin and occupied the old woolen mill. This was the first large industry to be located since the watch factory and gave an impetus to the city. It at once employed three hundred and fifty people.
In 1871 there came to Elgin a young man ( then twenty-two years of age) who was to have a large and continuing influence upon the growth of the city. He engaged in the grocery business with success until 1882. when he began a series of public operations that not alone enriched himself but gave to the city a larger industrial scope and a much increased population. That young man was William Grote, who was born in Germany in 1849-a striking exam- ple of what may be accomplished in this land of the free by men of persever- ance and capacity. Through the impetus given by the efforts of William Grote in the early 'Sos more factories were located in the city from 1882 to 1892 than have been located here before or since that time. Mr. Grote and his associates, A. B. Church, E. D. Waldron, and others, are chiefly credited with this acquisition.
Since 1892 Elgin, though suffering severely from the depression of 1893-97. which closed many of its factories and put the rest on short time, has continued to grow in population and business enterprises. Today every store and every office is occupied. and despite the panic of 1908 is advancing in public improvements and in the enthusiasm of its citizens. This year large paving contracts have been given and the system of sewerage inaugurated under the administration of Carl E. Botsford successfully completed. A com- mercial club comprising already nearly three hundred members, paying annual clues of ten dollars each. has been launched. A specialist will be employed as a secretary, whose work it will be to secure industries for location here and in every way advance the interests of the community. Backed by the best citizens. this organization promises great good.
Elgin, with its present population of twenty-five thousand, bids fair within the next ten years to increase to forty thousand. and continue as she has been these many years. the Queen City of the Fox.
The advancement of the city in the matter of parks and public play- grounds. thanks to the generosity of the late Mr. George P. Lord and his esteemed wife. Mary Carpenter Lord, and the late William H. Wing. has, been unsurpassed. Mr. and Mrs. Lord gave to the city the splendid Lord's park east of the city and expended much money during their lives to make it the beautiful place it is. They also contributed largely to the Young Women's Christian Association building and the Young Men's Christian Association
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building. They gave to the Young Men's Christian Association the block occupied by Hall's drug store. Mr. Lord also gave the city the small park (Central park) on the west side, opposite the Old People's Home, which was built by Mr. and Mrs. Lord on the old Lord homestead. Mrs. Carpenter Lord also built the fine Congregational church at Carpentersville in memory of her first husband, Julius A. Carpenter, by whose efforts much of the wealth she generously and wisely distributed was accumulated.
William H. Wing, who died leaving no immediate heirs, gave to the city the magnificent park on the northwest side, now named Wing park. It con- tains nearly two hundred acres, and has room for a race course and a golf grounds (both of which have been laid out ), and is destined to become one of the most attractive playgrounds in the city.
ITEMS OF HISTORICAL INTEREST.
Formerly what is now Grove avenue south of Prairie street intersected Prairie street at a point several rods east of River street, thus making an unseemly turn in the road and interrupting the view. Efforts were made as early as 1870 to have those streets connected in a straight line, but owing to the opposition of property owners it was not effected until 1873. Then the two-story brick house of Mr. R. Beckwith, which stood in the way, was raised with screws and removed several rods to the west of River street, where it now stands. This was the first exhibition of this kind of modern engineering skill ever accomplished in Elgin. Grove avenue thus became a part of South River street and is now one of the finest drives in the city.
Much feeling was manifested and discussion had as to the propriety of the appropriation for building the new bridge, now National street. It was claimed that the expenditure was not then called for by any existing general public interest, but was beneficial, if at all, to local interests merely. Pron !- ises from private parties interested to aid in the expense of erecting the bridge have not yet been realized, though private property has been largely enhanced in value thereby. The plea that such extension of available residence prop- erty is an indirect benefit to the city is neutralized by the fact that the population was not yet crowded in other quarters already accessible.
In 1870 the late Dr. P. W. Pratt commenced the culture of fish and en- closed a park of some seventy acres of what was known to the early settlers as the "cedar swamp," lying on the east side of the river, one and a half miles above the city. The numerous springs in this "Trout Park" feed the ponds in which are reared the young salmonaide. This park was also at one time stocked with elk and deer. Some of the springs are believed to have valuable medicinal properties. This park has since become a popular resort for pleasure seekers, especially Germans from Chicago. Dr. W. A. Pratt continued to improve it after the death of his father in 1872.
In the same year Mr. D. S. Hammond. of Hammond Station, on the Chicago & Pacific Railway, near the southeast corner of the city limits. com- menced the business of pisciculture in a scientific way by building a system of capacious tanks and ponds of solid masonry, fed by bounteous springs of pure
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cold water, gushing up in a beautiful dell, surrounded by a grove of magnificent forest trees. Hammond's grove is also a popular resort for picnic parties from Elgin and Chicago.
The Franco-German war, which commenced in the spring of 187C. aroused the sympathies of our German fellow citizens and liberal donations were sent from Elgin to the fatherland during this year to aid in assuaging the sufferings always caused by war.
The census of Kane county was taken this year, when it was found to contain a population of thirty-nine thousand. an increase of nine thousand since 1860. The census of this city, giving five thousand. four hundred and forty- one, was taken this year. This shows an increase of nearly three thousand in about five years.
On Monday, the 9th of October, 1871, when the news came flashing over the wires that the city of Chicago was still in flames and thousands of her peo- ple were driven homeless and hungry into the open air or crowded into the remaining houses of the suburbs. the citizens of Elgin at once called a mass meeting at DuBois Opera House and appointed a committee to visit every bakery in the city and set them at work preparing bread for the outcasts. Of the names of the committee we have learned positively only two-Messrs. A. B. Fish and John Coburn. So many others acted in concert with these gentle- men, and such was the eagerness and enthusiasm of all without regard to appointment or priority in the generous rivalry of doing something to provide for the terrible exigency of fellow mortals in distress, that no one now can remember. for certain, whether he acted by authority as one of that committee or not. We could give the names of a score of citizens who were constantly on the alert for several days and nights in providing, shipping and delivering the donations of the people. Certain it is that "the ovens were heated seven times quicker than was their wont," and all night long on Monday night not only every bakery in the city was worked to its utmost capacity but at private houses women and men were busy baking bread, meats, beans and cooking all kinds of portable provisions, so that by half-past four o'clock on Tuesday morning the first carload of "relief" that was shipped from any point on that memorable morning was dispatched to the scene of suffering and distributed to the famished and frightened refugees from the flames. Over two thousand loaves were thus sent by lightning express on this first train, and as the day broke over the supperless, shivering, shelterless crowds, who had all night long looked despairingly up into the face of the cold sky, over which hovered the smoke of their smoldering homes, they must have fancied that the old-time fable of bread dropping from heaven had been realized. We note the fact of our priority in providing bread to break the fast of that starving multitude more from pride in the general impulses of human nature than to give any particular credit to our single city, though in that connection it is an item worthy of the historian's pen. To boast of being first in performing a charit- able act, which was so spontaneously and universally seconded by the entire civilized world. would be invidious as an estimate of our benevolence, while it may be no more than a just meed of praise to the spirit of practical activity and "push" which pervades our community. The first carload was followed
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by another batch of bread and provisions on the seven o'clock a. m. train, and by another full carload in the afternoon containing clothing and blankets as well as food. Three times a day for over a week fresh provisions were sent in with citizens in charge to see them safely and properly bestowed. The whole energies of the entire people were virtually given up to the task of assisting the sufferers from this great calamity. The amount of value in dollars and cents thus contributed by the citizens of Elgin, in money. time and material. was never computed nor accounted. But aside from this fully one thousand dollars in cash was raised by citizens and paid over to the bakers and victualers, who charged only for the bare material. Though our gifts were small in comparison with the gratuities which flowed in from every quarter of the globe in such liberal streams, amounting to millions in the ag- gregate, yet we think this an appropriate place to chronicle the fact that, both in amount and in promptness, the citizens of Elgin have cause to remember with pride their preeminence on this occasion.
We also note with pleasure the following complimentary item :
Chicago, Dec. 1, 1871.
G. P. Lord, Esq ..
Dear Sir : We have been duly placed in possession of the truly generous donation of $1,591.50, from the liberal and sympathizing employes of the National Watch Company. * ( Signed)
GEO. M. PULLMAN, C. G. HAMMOND, Treasurers Chicago Relief and Aid Society.
It is further stated, in a note from T. M. Avery, president of the National Watch Company, acknowledging this remittance, that "it was inade up to a considerable extent by contributions from young ladies who necessarily had to make great sacrifices for the accomplishment of so noble a charity." What higher praise could be paid to the liberality and intelligence of our industrial population ?
The question of granting license to liquor saloons has at various times agitated the people of Elgin. In 1868 the experiment had been tried of refusing license. Litigation followed, and either through the fault of the law or the apathy of its supporters, it failed to secure the results anticipated.
On the 16th of May. 1873. a petition was presented to the common council, signed by one thousand five hundred and eighty-seven persons, praying them "not to grant license to saloonkeepers." The petition was reported upon adversely by two of the members of the committee on license, giving at length the arguments against any attempt to prohibit the traffic and recommending a License at $100 per annum. Ald. R. P. Jackman moved to substitute $300 for $100. Lost. 10 to 2. The report adverse to the petition was then adopted by a vote of II to I.
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On Monday morning, March 23, 1874, Elgin was visited by one of the most destructive fires which ever occurred here. The ground burned over was the two prominent business corners of the city, fronting on Chicago street, Douglas avenue and Fountain place. The total loss was estimated at $150,000. Insurance on this property, buildings and goods was paid to the amount of nearly $100,000, and by October of the same year the entire ground, with the exception of one lot in Chicago street, was entirely rebuilt in a much more substantial and ornamental style.
In the spring of 1874 what was known as the temperance crusading wave reached Elgin. Mass meetings were held in the churches and at DuBois Opera House, at which the pledge was circulated and signed by large numbers of our citizens. The ladies were especially active in promoting the cause of temperance during the spring and summer of this year. On the 15th of April a petition was presented to the city council by a committee of prominent ladies, praying that no license to sell liquor be granted. The petition was considered at the next meeting of the council, April 22, and rejected by the casting vote of the mayor-six aldermen voting in favor and six against it.
About the first of May, 1874, the Elgin Gazette, which had been pub- lished longer than any other paper ever started here, ceased to exist, from mismanagement and consequent financial difficulties. Its office and a portion of the material on which it was printed were soon after secured by Mr. S. L. Taylor, proprietor of the Elgin Advocate, who has made it one of the best country newspapers in the state. Mr. E. Keogh, the last editor of the Gazette. immediately after its demise started the Elgin Times.
On the 4th of June, 1874, the old settlers held their annual gathering at the fair grounds, where speeches were made by several of the old residents of the vicinity, and by Governor Beveridge, who was present by invitation.
In the month of November, 1874. an agent from Smith county, Kansas, visited Elgin, and presented the claims of the sufferers from drought and grasshoppers in that region. The agent being known to Dr. Joseph Tefft, of this city, the appeal was met by the citizens of Elgin in the most liberal spirit. Upward of $1,000 worth of goods, clothing, etc., were donated and shipped to Smith county, and $530 in cash was raised and paid over to the agent for that purpose.
Building operations in Elgin during 1874 were unusually active. In addition to rebuilding the burnt district a large number of other business buildings and private residences were erected. Not far from half a million of dollars were expended in this way, including $150,000 upon the asylum.
On the evening of May 13, 1875. a large meeting of citizens was held at the courthouse to hear a report from the board of education relative to the contemplated new schoolhouses. They recommended an expenditure of $90,000 for this purpose, and ere long Elgin was provided with school buildings which were an honor to the city and attracted hither persons who had children to educate.
FUARRT L PAIER
OLD CITY HOTEL. ELGIN.
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
From information lately received we are able to correct a statement that has heretofore been current that the first white child born on the site of our present city was Joseph Kimball. It appears that Louisa, the daughter of John and Lydia Kimball. and Charlotte, daughter of Sidney and Martha Kimball, were both born in the spring of 1836, and consequently saw the light sooner, by some months, than Joseph. After having borne these natal honors for so many years, putting on airs in the belief that he was the first of his race in Elgin. it seems hard to strip the laurels from his brow and bind them upon the forehead of the feebler sex.
Another item to which we allude with melancholy interest is the death of the first white woman who ever saw the banks of the Fox river at this point. This lady was Mrs. Mary Jane Gifford, wife of Hezekiah Gifford, whose name is familiar in these pages. Her death occurred on the first day in Jan- uary, 1874, just thirty-eight years and a half from the date of her first appearance upon the spot where her career was ever afterward marked with all respect and esteem due to a brave pioneer, as well as a pions, kind and gentle woman.
Gail Borden died on the 13th of January, 1874, in Borden, Texas, where he had gone but a few days before from this place and after having made arrangements to permanently reside here.
The annual city election was held on the first Monday of March. 1875. License or no license was to some extent an issue, and although the com- plexion of the common council on this subject was not materially changed. they soon after raised the price of license from $125 to $300, and the number of licensed saloons has been reduced about one-half. The city sexton's report was read at the first meeting of the new council, showing the number of deaths in the city during the past year to have been one hundred and eight. This, in a population of eight thousand, speaks well for the health of the place. With the commencement of this year R. W. Padelford, who had been clerk of the council ever since the establishment of the city government in 1854, and had given universal satisfaction, ceased to act as such, and W. F. Sylla was appointed in his place.
The Chicago & Pacific Railroad, to which Elgin is so much indebted, was (luring this month completed to Byron, on Rock river, fifty-eight miles west of our city.
The deaths of William C. Kimball and Roswell Smith, the former aged sixty-nine and the latter sixty-one, and both of them old residents of the city. occurred at nearly the same hour on the 6th of May. 1875.
The property known as the Lovell farm. on the east side of the river. was this year ( 1875) platted and brought into market. A large number of new streets and residences are now situated upon a portion of it. This prop- erty, lying along the track of the Fox River Valley Railroad, is admirably adapted to become the site of some of the new mammoth manufacturing estab- lishments, which are seeking locations among us. (This prophesy came true when the D. C. Cook Publishing Company built on thirteen acres of this land in 1900.)
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PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1840-LAKE PRECINCT.
Elgin, Plato, Dundee.
Abbott. Jesse
Frazier, Finley
Jenne. John
Abbott. N. K.
Gage. Harvey
Kimball, William P.
Adams, Halsey
George, Hiram
Kimball. A. S.
Adams, Mark
Gifford, Hezekiah
Kimball, Joseph
Adams, Guy
Gifford. James T.
Kimball, Charles
Adams, Benjamin
Gifford. Asa
Kimball, Samuel
Ambrose. Joshua E.
Gifford, Abel D.
Kimball. Jonathan
Bailey, Aaron
Goodrich, P. M.
Kimball, Russell F.
Bailey, Erastus
Gray. Moses
Kimball, George W.
Bascomb, Franklin
Green, Seth
Kimball, P. J., Jr.
Bateman, Thomas
Grow, Ralph
Kimball. William C.
Bean, Folsom
Guptill, John
Kimball, Samuel J.
Barney, Aurelius
Guptail. Daniel
Kipp. Caleb
Bellows, W. M.
Gurtean, Alfred
Leatherman. Abraham
Benham, Horace
Hadlock, Alfred
Leatherman, Daniel
Branham, Berry Hall. Calvin
Lee. Rowland
Branham, Christopher
Hammer, George
Leonard, Anson
Burbanks. Thomas
Hammer. George W.
Lovell, John
Burdick, Samuel P.
Hammer. David
Lovell, Vincent S.
Burdwick, Joseph S.
Hammer, Isaac
Mann, Adin
Burk, Owen
Hamilton, Solomon
Mann. E. K.
Burritt. Benjamin
Hamilton, Solomon H.
Mann, William R.
Burritt. Peter
Harwood, Aaron
Mappa, Charles W.
Calvert, Thomas
Hart. Wolcot
Merrill. Asa
Calvert. John S.
Hassan. George
Merrill, Chaplin W.
Carr, Calvin
Hatch, Philo
Merrifield, Charles
Cawood. Abraham
Hayden, Charles H.
Miltimore, E. A.
Clark, Amos
lleath. Sidney
Minard, Samuel
Clark, N. C.
Heath, Horace
Mitchell, Thomas
Clark. Elijalı
Heath, Richard A.
Moulton, William A.
Corran. Joseph
Herrick, Luther
McMillen, D. B.
Corlis, David
Hewett, Artemus
McMillen, Alexander
Cromer, John
Hindsdale, Asahel B.
Olds. Ransom
Daggett, Nathan E.
Hill. John
Ordway, Alfred C.
Dike, Simon
Hinman. Gould
Otis, Isaac Parker. James
DeLong. Stephen
Hinckley. Otis
Duncan. Craig
Hoag. . 1. W.
Parker, Samuel
Dyer, George R.
Hoag. James
Parker, Orange
Eaton, Lewis
House. Jason
Phillips, Anthony
Earl, Ira
Howard, William B.
Pierce, Abel
Flynn. John
Howard, James M.
Plummer, Alexander
Fuller, Almond
Huckins, Humphrey
Porter, Addison R.
Fuller, Judah H.
Hunting. Samuel
Porter, Aaron
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
Ranstead, John Ranstead, Marcus Ray. Lewis
Stephens. Josiah
Truesdell, Burgess
Stephens, Norman
Tucker, Charles B.
Stone, Isaac
Tupper, Lewis
Raymond, Harvey
Stone, Amos
Tyler. Lattimer S.
Rockwood, Lyman
Stowers, Justice
Underwood Whitman
Rosenkrans, Halsey
Stowell, Ralph
Underwood Anson
Rosenkrans, Asa Rowley, James H.
Stiles, Luther C.
Waterman, Elijah
Rowley, George W.
Sutherland, James
Wanzer, Moses
Sargent, Philip H.
Switzer, John W. Sylla, Philo
Welch, William W.
Scoville, John B.
Taylor, Daniel B.
Welch, David
Scott, James H.
Taylor, George F.
West, James
Shaw, W. S.
Tefft. Jonathan
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