USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 63
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The subscribers for the map, with their occupations, were as follows :
H. B. Annis, produce merchant ; Hon. A. Adams, farmer and merchant ; Thomas Avery, miller; Dr. G. S. Abbott: D. W. Bangs, nurseryman: I. N. Buck, auctioneer : D. F. Barclay, tinsmith; B. Burritt, street commissioner ; A. Barrows, architect and builder: Peter Burritt, farmer, Hanover, Cook county; J. W. Brewster, farmer; John Bowlin, farmer; Lyman Black ; A. Chase. Waverly house; city council: Cornell. Wilder & Co., City Gem; Alvah Chandler, machinist; C. A. Clark, cloth finisher: S. A. Call. archi- tect ; James H. Crawford, carpenter and joiner; George Clarkson : E. K. W. Cornell. City Gem: D. M. Cole, boot and shoe store: John Connor, black- smith; Charles S. Clark, hardware merchant: Martin Coney, millwright : Demarcus Clark, merchant: E. F. Colby, attorney-at-law and vender of real estate: S. Newton Dexter, proprietor woolen factory: Dexter & Co., leather manufacturers ; Alex. Denis, carpenter and joiner : Michael Dougherty, farmer and produce merchant ; L. S. Eaton: A. B. Fish & Co .. merchants: J. Force. machinist: G. W. French, farmer: John Forlarcher. carpenter and joiner : Miss Harriet E. Gifford: S. A. Gregory, carriage and wagon manufacturer : James H. Gifford, produce merchant : P. H. Graves, saleratus and baking powder manufacturer: Daniel Gahan. tanner: Joseph Gardner. sea captain : Edm'd Gifford. Esq., attorney and solicitor, general land agent, notary public. commissioner for Iowa, etc. : George P. Harvey, produce merchant : W. Hollo- way, merchant: John H. Harris, merchant : George Hassan, drayman and
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carrier ; A. S. Harpending, livery stables ; A. Hadlock, threshing machine manu- facturer ; William G. Hubbard, merchant; A. Hoagland, lumber merchant ; J. W. Hoagland, lumber merchant ; Joseph Hutchinson, mason and builder ; A. Hewitt, mason and builder; C. S. Hadlock, machinist; S. H. Hamilton, merchant ; A. B. Hinsdell, farmer; Ezra Hanson, farmer; Rev. A. J. Joslyn, pastor Baptist church; E. S. Joslyn, attorney-at-law ; William C. Kimball, merchant and vender of real estate; P. J. Kimball, Jr., vender of real estate ; P. J. Kimball, Sr., farmer ; S. J. Kimball, farmer ; G. W. Kimball, cabinet and chair manufacturer: J. C. Kennedy, hardware merchant; Dr. Thomas Kerr, physician and surgeon : James Knott, merchant ; B. F. Lawrence, distiller ; Seth Lobdell. machinist; Timothy Lynch, merchant and leather manufacturer ; J. Lyman, printer and publisher Kane County Journal ; G. W. Morse, machinist ; William F. Munay, cloth finisher ; R. G. Morgan, civil engineer ; John Mann, carpenter and joiner ; A. J. Messenger, wagon and plow shop; G. H. Merrill, agent Galena & Chicago Union Railroad; William W. Merrill, butcher ; John McDowell, blacksmith: T. McBride, produce and lumber merchant; S. McOsker, merchant tailor; John D. Meehan, merchant tailor; Manning & Barnum, merchants; R. O. Old, book and news depot, east end bridge; Daniel O'Brien ; E. Owen, editor ; R. W. Padelford, daguerrean artist ; Phelps & Tichenor, furniture warerooms; John J. Paris, miller; C. K. Patterson, fruit gardener : J. E. Phelps, proprietor livery stables ; L. T. Pembec, mechanic ; E. F. Reeves, mason and builder ; Milo Smith, chief engineer and superintend- ent Fox River Valley Railroad; L. C. Stiles, machinist ; J. B. Smith, hardware merchant ; George Smith, weaver; John B. Smith, engineer; Philo Sylla, manufacturer reapers and mowers; T. Schoonhoven, farmer; S. B. Sexton, proprietor livery and sale stable; M. Strausell, proprietor Fox River house; Isaac Stoddard, carriage and blacksmith shop; C. C. Stiles, farmer and builder ; Fred. Seitz, merchant tailor; M. D. Seward; William Saunders, grocer and provision dealer; R. Smith, merchant; James S. Taylor, Esq., justice of the peace; J. F. Taylor, boot and shoe dealer, east end bridge; B. Truesdell, pro- prietor Elgin nursery and garden; Dr. A. Turner, physician and surgeon; Charles Tazewell, brewer; M. C. Town, banker; James Todd, lumber mer- chant and farmer; William G. Todd, merchant and proprietor planing mill and sash factory; C. C. Theirs, merchant ; William M. Taylor, law student ; R. S. Tickner, lumber merchant ; J. N. Truesdell, carpenter and joiner ; P. Van Nostrand, produce merchant; W. S. Vescelius, tanner ; S. Wilcox, attorney- at-law; Paul R. Wright, attorney-at-law; A. J. Waldron, attorney-at-law and secretary Fox River Valley Railroad; F. W. Wright, machinist ; E. S. Wilcox, postmaster; John Watkins, produce merchant; D. O. Wilkie, carpenter; G. Works, machinist; Abel Walker, undertaker; J. M. Wilber, carpenter, joiner and contractor; D. E. Winchester, physician and surgeon; J. J. White, dry goods, wholesale and retail; L. H. Yarwood & Co., druggists ; R. L. Yarwood, merchant and woolen cloth manufacturer; J. R. Yarwood, clerk ; H. L. Yarwood, druggist.
Since the above was written, in 1875, many changes in the business centers and methods have been realized. Fountain square, then the center of business, has become less important. Business has spread in every direction,
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more noticeably south on Grove avenue and into DuPage street, where now the fine department stores of George M. Peck and Theo. F. Swan ( both old- time merchants) are located. On Milwaukee street the department store of Ackemann Bros. makes that a new center of trade. Chicago street, while retaining its former importance, has not advanced as rapidly as the other business streets; while River street has become the seat of innumerable manu- facturing plants, the most noted among them being the Seybold piano and organ factory, organized but a few years ago, but now doing a large busi- ness in every part of the country. The west side has remained little changed except that all the lots on State street are now occupied by business blocks. All parts of the city have grown and extended until now it covers an area over three miles square, in every part of which factories and business places are active. The department store is the modern development in trade and has no doubt come to stay.
THE DAIRY BUSINESS OF ELGIN AND VICINITY.
In 1875 by I. H. Wanser.
"The rise and progress of the dairy interest in the town of Elgin and vicinity was so rapid and wonderful that it seems as if its present gigantic proportions had been reached by a sort of magic, and so strange does it sound when the truth is told to a stranger, that he looks upon us as he does upon those whom he knows are in the habit of exaggerating. But where in the history of this branch of agriculture do we find its parallel? Twenty years ago we could find in Elgin and the adjacent country around for six miles, only eight hundred cows, where now we have thirteen thousand. Then in all this range, only about one thousand pounds of cheese were made annually, and about four times as much butter, above what was used in home consumption. Now we find upon the same belt of country there are two million pounds of cheese made annually, and five hundred and fifty thousand pounds of butter. As these products have increased in quantity and quality, year by year, so has their reputation, until Elgin butter and cheese can be found in the stores of the fancy grocer of San Francisco and New York, and upon the wharves of Liverpool. Besides the milk required to manufacture this vast quantity of butter and cheese, three carloads are sent daily to Chicago; and last, but not least, the condensing factory condenses daily the milk from one thousand cows, and sends its products forth to the entire known world. Yes, every outgoing ship from our seaboards, in every army, whether in fort or field, with the traveler and mountaineer, can be found the condensed milk bearing the name of our beloved city-Elgin.
"As the early history of this great business will interest strangers, as well as those in our midst who have been engaged in other vocations and conse- quently have not watched its growth, it may be well to take a retrospective view of it from its infancy to the present time. In 1852 Mr. P. H. Smith, by the help of Father Brewster, made arrangements to furnish the Adams house, of Chicago, with milk direct from his farm and to be sent daily by
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rail. The first can was sent on the 12th day of February, 1852. Mr. Smith was then living upon the farm of Dr. Tefft, one mile east of Elgin. The milk was brought to the depot upon an ox cart. drawn by a yoke of oxen. A portion of the cart, and the identical can in which the first milk was sent to Chicago by rail, are now in the possession of the writer. The next to try this experiment was Deacon Luther Herrick, who commenced six months later. The price of milk at this time was only six cents per gallon, free of freight, and had to be sent twice a day, the morning's milk at 6 a. m. The deacon and his wife still live, in their eightieth year, and often tell us how that, long before day, they commenced the work of milking, and in cold weather placed their feet in the warm bed the cows had just risen from, to keep them from freezing. Soon after others commenced, among whom were O. B. Jenne, John Cook, F. W. Wright, A. D. Gifford, Samuel P. Bur- dick. Jarvis Smith, Ballard, Sherman, McLean, Larkin, Padelford and others, until the Chicago trade was really overdone. A surplus of milk was thus found upon the hands of the producers, which was manufactured into cheese. made in the old-fashioned way. Among the first to commence cheese making were Frank Webster, upon Henry Sherman's farm; C. W. Gould and I. H. Wanzer. We made our cheese as best we could and carried them to to Chi- cago loose in wagons, for we had no boxes to ship by rail. The writer has spent two days in peddling a one-horse load of cheese, getting on an average, six cents per pound, one-half money and one-half trade, and yet contented, because it was the best business going.
"Thus we toiled and struggled on until 1864, when the condensing factory commenced operations, giving a new impetus to the business, by taking the then surplus milk and making a market for more. But soon this new demand was satisfied and the business began to droop for want of means to utilize the milk. Then there began to be talk of building cheese factories to use the surplus milk, which increased year by year. The first cheese factory in this section to be run upon the associated plan, was built by Henry Sherman. The next was by A. D. Gifford, M. . \. Devine and I. H. Wanzer ; then came Gould's factory, Hanover factory ( B), Udina factory, others following as the increase of milk demanded.
"The first butter factory built west of the lakes, was the Elgin butter factory, now managed by the Elgin Butter Company. Other factories have followed in rapid succession as they seemed to be needed. And thus we have traveled on, battling with the difficulties incident to our climate and soil, until we have proven the ill-prediction of the east to be ill-founded, and now place our dairy products in the markets of the world at the very highest-prices.
"Some idea of the extent of the dairy interest may be realized from the fact that the cash paid to the farmers within five miles of Elgin, for butter and cheese alone, amounts to $560,000 annually. This is exclusive of the milk sent to Chicago and that which is consumed at the condensing factory.
"The Board of Trade, established for the sale of dairy products, brings large amounts from other parts to Elgin for sale. During the year 1874, 2,955,202 pounds of cheese were sold on the board, and 136.426 pounds of
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creamery butter, for which was paid $368,528.58. This amount of butter and cheese includes that produced outside of the limit mentioned in the first part of this article. The dairymen take great interest in the Board of Trade, and its weekly meetings are generally well attended by those engaged in the manu- facture of butter and cheese."
THE MAKING OF THE ELGIN BUTTER MARKET.
By Arthur Bemis Hinsdell, in the Daily Courier, Friday, August 28, 1908.
In the office of a great daily newspaper the telegraph editor scanned the dispatches handed him with feverish anxiety. It was within a few minutes of the "dead line" and yet the one message he was awaiting had not been received over the wires. The copy boy appeared, however, at this moment, bearing in his hand a small piece of "flimsy" and the editor's fears were at once dispelled. The dispatch said, simply :
"Elgin Butter Market, Elgin, Ill., Feb. 3 .- ( Special)-The Elgin board of trade today declared butter firm at 33c. The total output for the last week in this district was 59,700 pounds."
And yet it was a message considered so important by this editor that he hardly dared send his paper to press without it. This man was but one of hundreds of editors all over this continent, and Europe as well, who had been awaiting a dispatch from the little Illinois city of less than twenty-six thou- sand inhabitants which has thrived and prospered in the heart of the Fox river valley for nearly three-quarters of a century.
MILLIONS AWAIT NEWS.
On Monday afternoon of each week a similar message is sent out over the wires leading out of this city and by Tuesday morning it has met the eyes of no less than ten million persons who have been just as eagerly looking for it as the editor on the great daily paper. For more than half a century the press of two continents has given space to the two or three line para- graph, which authentically establishes the price of butter each week for the civilized world.
The scene which leads up to the sending of this message, generally recognized by dealers and others as a quotation, is no less interesting than in the editor's sanctum. At two o'clock each Monday afternoon a train from Chicago, thirty-six miles away, stops at a street crossing in the business portion of Elgin and allows fifty or sixty of its passengers to alight. They are members of the Elgin board of trade, who maintain offices in Chicago, and who are now on their way to a spacious hall in one of the business blocks where the prices of butter are made.
METHODS OF BUSINESS.
ยท Upon their arrival the secretary's gavel raps for order and the three hundred members who have gathered from various parts of the country
PHOTOGRAPH & ART GALLERY .-
CHICAGO STREET, ELGIN, ABOUT 1860.
CM DANIELS&SON INSURANCE AC'T
CHICAGO STREET, LOOKING EAST, 1860.
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await in silence the reading of the week's report. There have been no others but the sales (conducted outside the board) have been unusually heavy. When the gong is sounded as the signal to cease selling, the report of the "quotation committee" is received and adjournment quickly follows. The price of butter has been set and the press correspondents rush to the telegraph stations in the several corners of the room to send the news out to the millions who are awaiting it.
Elgin became the great dairy center of the world by mere chance. When James Hanks, a young woodsman hailing from Steuben county, New York, first established his cabin on the present site of the city, back in the fall of '1832, he little thought of the fame which would come to the city which he founded. He was barely out of his teens when he first saw the waters of the Fox, yet he wrote home. "It is the most beautiful spot in God's kingdom and is destined to become famous. Come at once and bring all our friends and let them bring their friends."
CITY GETS A START.
In the spring of the following year James T. Gifford arrived, inspired by the news from Hanks, and, recognizing the natural advantages of the country, built his cabin and awaited new arrivals. Within a few months others came until there were soon enough cabins to give the appearance of a settlement. As the site chosen was just off of Scott's old army trail, it was known at first as "State road," but was subsequently styled Elgin by Gifford and his associates. The tribe of Pottawattomies which occupied the country proved to be friendly and the little village commenced at once to prosper.
By 1837 there were five hundred residents in Elgin and two stage coaches rolled through the street of the town each week as they traveled forth and back from Chicago to Galena. Those were boom days, indeed, and Elgin thrived. About this time Augustus Adams & Co. established the first manti- facturing plant for corn crushers in the west. and later a large plow works was opened which attracted buyers from all over the west and Elgin's name began to spread. In 1842 the first woolen mill in the west was erected at Elgin by S. N. Dexter, and for more than a decade the town was the greatest wool center in the United States. Stores were built and two comfortable hotels were constructed, both of which are still standing. The failure of the Illinois State bank in 1840 caused havoc to reign, but Elgin was the first town to recover. It was a gala day in Elgin when, in the summer of 1849. the first railroad train running west of Chicago pulled into the city, and the event was properly celebrated with a great barbecue.
MILK INDUSTRY BEGINS.
So it was a great day when, on the 12th of February, 1852, H. P. Smith shipped to Chicago the first can of milk, produced on his farm just on the outskirts of the town. The milk was hauled to the depot on an oxcart. drawn by a yoke of oxen. A portion of this cart, as well as the identical can
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in which the milk was sent to the Adams house in Chicago, still remain in the possession of Elgin pioneers. Mr. Smith had arranged through Father Brewster to supply this celebrated hostelry with a can of fresh milk each day. receiving six cents per gallon. free of freight.
Deacon Luther Herrick became the second shipper of milk to the metrop- olis and others, seizing the opportunity of disposing of their products. arranged to ship milk on the morning train, which left Elgin at six o'clock. Among them were O. B. Jenne, John Cook, F. W. Wright. A. D. Gifford, Samuel P. Burdick, Jarvis Smith and others, until the Chicago trade was really over-supplied. Many interesting stories are now told by the children of these early day dairymen regarding the hardships of those times. Often it was necessary to arise long before the dawn of day, and the milkers were forced to bury their feet in the bedding of the cows to keep them from freezing on winter mornings.
CHICAGO OVER-SUPPLIED.
But when it was found that the Chicago market was over-supplied it was necessary to discover a method of disposing of the surplus milk. Frank Webster decided to make cheese and his idea was accepted by C. W. Gould and Isaac H. Wanzer. In describing the experiment to a friend Mr. Wanzer wrote: "We made our cheese as best we could and carried it to Chicago loose in wagons, for we had no boxes to ship by rail. Once I spent two entire days in peddling a one-horse load of cheese through the streets of Chicago, getting on an average of six cents per pound, one-half money and the other half in trade, and yet I was perfectly contented because it was the best business going."
For several years the farmers of this growing dairy center toiled and struggled on, until, in 1864. Gail Borden, the inventor of the first process of condensing milk. organized the Elgin Milk Condensing Company, capi- talized at $25,000, among Elgin and Chicago residents. The location of this unique manufactory in the city gave Elgin much prestige throughout the country as a dairy center. The highest price was paid for milk delivered at the factory, which was required to be of the very best quality, fresh. rich and clean. It was necessary that the cows supplying the milk must be fed upon the richest pastures in summer and the highest quality of feed in winter, and the standard of milk in the Elgin district became a conspicuous one, a standard which has always been maintained and seldom equaled.
This factory gave a new impetus to the dairy business by taking the then surplus milk and creating a demand for more. The factory employed some thirty hands and was operated at capacity, but soon the demand for milk at this place was satisfied and the dairymen found it necessary to adopt other means of utilizing their milk. Then there began to be talk of building cheese factories to take this surplus and the first institution of this sort was built by Henran Sherman, who conducted it upon the associated plan. Other factories were established by A. D. Gifford. M. A. Devine and I. H. Wanzer.
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BUTTER MAKING BY STEAM.
In April, 1870, a steam power butter factory, the first to be built west of the great lakes, was opened by the Elgin Dairy Company. The buildings were about 80x30 feet in dimensions, having two stories and a basement. A four-horse power steam engine was introduced to drive the churns and the pumps. Steam power was a decided novelty in those days and the experi- ment, with its resultant success, was hailed with great joy. A series of experiments in the art of butter making was carried on under the supervision of Mr. Wanzer, with the result that an article far superior to the butter made in the hand churns was produced. It was approved by the dealers, and was at once worth ten cents per pound more than that butter made on the farm.
During the first year of operation the Elgin Dairy Company consumed seven hundred gallons of milk each day and manufactured from one hundred to two hundred pounds of "Elgin" butter, which was at once in great demand. At this time Dr. Joseph Tefft was president of the company, M. H. Thompson secretary and O. Davidson treasurer. The directors were Isaac H. Wanzer, Cyrus Larkin and Otis B. Jenne. Later the company changed its name to the Elgin Butter Company, and within a year had increased its business so that two thousand gallons of milk were used daily, for which twelve and a half cents a gallon was paid in the winter and eight cents in the summer. The aggregate amount of butter made was one hundred and forty-four thousand pounds for the year, and one hundred and ninety thousand pounds of cheese. All the output was readily sold at contract, the butter bringing forty cents a pound and the cheese from eight to ten cents.
FAME IS WORLD-WIDE.
At this time the dairy business in and around Elgin had grown to such proportions that $560,000 was being paid annually to the farmers within a radius of five miles of the city for butter and cheese alone. This was exclu- sive of the milk shipped to Chicago or sold at the condensing factory. With the successful launching of the creamery others followed as rapidly as they were needed and "Elgin butter" or "Elgin cheese" were as much sought after in San Francisco and New York as in Chicago, while large consignments were shipped to Europe and other foreign countries and the reputation of Elgin products was established. Every army of the civilized world was supplied with milk put up in cans bearing the label "Elgin." Improved machinery for the manufacture of butter and cheese invented and manufac- tured in Elgin was being shipped to various parts of the universe and nothing was considered reliable in the dairy line unless it bore the "Elgin" stamp.
The Elgin board of trade was organized in 1871, for the sale of dairy products, and the scope of the dairy district was enlarged until now it reaches into several states. The sales of butter on the board in one week are often found to be almost as large as during a whole year in the early 'zos. The cheese business has practically discontinued, as the manufacture of this pro- duct has shifted to other parts of the country, but the standard of Elgin butter is still unequaled.
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FOREIGN TRADE OF ELGIN.
A. H. Kirkland, in Elgin Daily Courier.
The development of a large foreign trade by various Elgin manufacturers testifies to the variety and scope of the city's industries. It is also significant of a broad expansion in the future.
In common with manufacturers in all sections of the United States, Elgin manufacturing concerns have begun to reach out in foreign countries for a further market for their wares. In the past few years this business has reached large proportions, and of the millions of dollars' worth of commodities manu- factured here each year no small percentage goes to dealers and citizens of faraway lands.
This foreign trade is not confined to any one business, nor to any special class of business, but a large majority of Elgin manufacturing establishments have or are now shipping their wares to other lands. From watches to butter tubs. and condensed milk to Bibles, ranges the variety of Elgin-made goods that find their ultimate use in the homes or stores or factories of the people of some distant nation.
CITY IS ADVERTISED ABROAD.
It is probable that a very small percentage of Elgin's citizens know how widely this city is advertised by its products, and among those who do not know are many of the people who help produce these very articles. It is a part of the business that, with two or three exceptions, has been neglected in the past. but that in the future is to command almost as much attention as the business right here in the United States.
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