USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 10
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lawyer. Mr. Ball built a mill on Big Rock creek, one mile south of Plano, and sold it two years afterwards to John Schneider, the Bristol miller. Rev. Mr. Eddy, a local preacher, claimed the John C. Scofield place.
He used to have prayer meetings at his house. Mr. Ross claimed the Rickard farm. Mr. Bailey had a shanty on the prairie just over the line in Little Rock.
155
EARLY SETTLERS OF OSWEGO.
Among the settlers in
OSWEGO,
were John McCloud and Jonathan Ricketson, from Liv- ingston county, New York. The following year Mr. Ricketson moved to Plattville, and built the second house in that burg. It stood by the creek at the west end of the bridge, and is now owned by the Wilkinson estate. He made the first wagon track from Fox river to Plattville. Mr. McCloud also removed after two years, and settled a mile and a half east of Plattville. Rufus Gray came from Montgomery county, New York, and still lives on his farm near Montgomery, above Oswego. Daniel S. Gray settled in Bristol. Stephen English was from New York. Also, Truman Hathway. William A. Randall was from Pennsylvania, and walked all the way to Oswego. In Chicago he was offered a large tract of the marshy prairie in exchange for his rifle, but refused. The rifle he could use, but the land appeared absolutely worthless, except as a haunt for frogs and wild ducks, and a revealer of the total deprav- ity of teamsters. Mr. Stebbins and family came at the same time. A son, Glucins Stebbins, resides on Black- berry creek. Mr. Randall worked for John Pearce, and the following spring married his daughter, Miss Debo- rah, and set up a blacksmith shop, built of round logs, on the west side of the river. He made axes, hatchets, knives and steels, for both whites and Indians; also, guns, wagons, plows and implements of all kinds. He died at Newark in 1874.
MAJOR W. N. DAVIS was from New York City ; came from Detroit to Chicago
156
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
in a carriage. He and another Davis (no relation), Isaac Townsend, Robert Townsend, afterward a rear admiral in the war of the rebellion, and a French half- breed by the name of Leframbeaux, came out to locate their claims. The Frenchman and two brothers- Francis, Joseph and Claude were their names-lived in a little grove on the site of Bridgeport, by the South Branch. The place was then called " Hardscrabble." Major Davis and Townsend located a large tract of land, including the Mohahwa reservation in Oswego and the Weskesha reservation in Na au-say. These they bought of the Indian proprietors, receiving deeds signed by them and by the Indian agent. Such deeds are a curi- osity. There is one on exhibition in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, given by the chiefs of the Six Nations to some traders in indemnity for goods stolen. The chiefs signed, by each making on the appointed place on the deed, the symbol of his tribe. The chief of the Mo- hawks made a rude representation of a steel, such as was used for striking flints. The chief of the Oneidas made a stone; the Tuscaroras, a cross ; the Onondagas, a mountain, a round mark much like the Oneida's stone ; the Cayugas, a pipe ; the chief of the Senecas made what he said was a high hill, a mark like a bell-glass, ten times as large as the Onondaga's mountain, and with a rude attempt at ornament or shading. After each mark was put a seal of red wax and the explanation in writing. The signatures of several witnesses completed the instrument. The trail from Detroit to Canada passed by the reservations bought by Davis and Townsend, and was traveled a hundred years before by the western tribes
157
OSWEGO LAID OUT.
going to Malden, Canada, to receive British pensions. Major Davis built his house on the divide or water-shed, which running parallel with Fox river enters the county at the north-eastern corner and leaves it at the south- western corner, below Holderman's Grove. From the back stoop of the house one may look over a territory of forty miles in diameter, from Lemont around to Sand- wich and Paw Paw Grove. Mr. Townsend settled in Na-au-say. His brother, Claudius Townsend, settled across the river from Oswego. Mr. Arnold settled in Oswego, and he and L. B. Judson laid out the village, calling it
HUDSON,
a name by which it was known for several years. Mr. Arnold opened the first store in the place the same sea- son. It stood on the present site of Levi Hall's drug store. Rev. Wilder B. Mack, a Methodist traveling preacher, held occasional services at Daniel Pearce's, and a class was organized there by Rev. William Royal. Stephen Ashley and Mr. Moss, a bachelor, were other settlers. John W. Chapman came in and stayed a few months, and then passed on to Dixon, where he remained seven years, returning in 1842. In
NA-AU-SAY,
John Hough and his brothers, Berridge and Jerry, each made claims by the Grove. Isaac Townsend bought out Selvey, and continued to add other claims from time to time. His family did not come until afterwards. He had three sons, Daniel J., Isaac and William D. When his family came he built a gravel house-a pretentious one for those days. Alexander Reed came here with him.
158
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
January 1st, 1835, a Land Office was opened at Chi- cago for what was known as the Northeast Land Dis trict. In each office there were two officers, a Register and Receiver, with salaries of $500 each. Col. E. D. Taylor and James Whitlock were the officers appointed at Chicago, and in six months took in half a million dol- lars. Only a small part of this county came into mar- ket at that time-the part south of the Indian boundary line, embracing half of the towns of Big Grove and Lis- bon, three-quarters of Seward, and two sections in Na-au- say. All lands purchased were exempt from taxation five years after purchase.
In August the last grand Pottawatomie
WAR DANCE
held in this section was celebrated at Chicago. Five thousand braves, painted and armed with tomahawks and clubs, assembled on the North side, having paraded the village street for an hour, to the great alarm of women and children, and not a few men.
Next to the Indians, the settlers' most inveterate ene- mies were
WOLVES.
They existed in great numbers, and would often kill hogs that were fattening in the woods. Chester Smith, of Plain- field, had a drove of hogs in the Aux Sable timber, and com- ing after them in the fall, he caught them, tied their feet and let them lie in the grove till morning. It was a cruel act, and in the morning some of the hogs were missing,-all but their bones. The wolves had eaten them alive. Others were killed and not eaten. A light snow fell in the night, and it was trampled and dyed
159
WOLF AND DEER HUNTS.
with blood like a battle-field. Wolf hunts were common. A stake would be set up, say, on the prairie beyond Lis- bon. The settlers would be engaged, and would come in a narrowing circle from miles in every direction, driv- ing everything before them. As they neared the central point and the enclosed game came in view, the excite- ment became intense. The wolves and deer tried to run the blockade, but were beaten back from every point, until they were nearly crazy with fright. Then the slaugh- ter commenced, and it was rarely that one escaped. Af- ter all was over an equitable distribution was made. In the hunt of 1835, eighteen wolves and twenty-four deer were killed. Two years before, in a Chicago hunt, forty wolves were killed. These hunts, however, like every other amusement, soon degenerated. The settlers in some localities would privately agree to shoot their game on the way, and afterward come in for a share in the common stock, thus defrauding their neighbors from other places. This cheating brought the hunts into dis- repute. That year a bear was killed in a lumber yard on the South Branch, Chicago, though such game was scarce. He was probably driven out of his forest home by hun- ger. The preceding winter was severe. February 8th, 1835, the thermometer stood at thirty-five degrees below zero-the coldest day known for years.
One night in October occurred a grand auroral dis- play, paling the moonlight. 1835 was, on the whole, a year of prosperity with those who had anything to sell, but, unfortunately, the new settlers had to buy.
THE FOLLOWING STORY
is told of Elder Tolman : His larder running short, he
160
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
went with an ox team to Chicago for provisions, and, with the rest, brought home a barrel of salt pork. Squire Ives and another neighbor took half of it, and then the question arose where to dispose of the rest. It could not be put down cellar, for there was none. Nor up stairs, for the same reason. Nor was there a square foot to be spared in the living room. So it was put out- side the cabin door. But in the morning it was gone, and after a diligent search was given over as lost. No, not lost, for towards evening a traveler reported having seen a terrible sight on the prairie ; it was something half bovine, half monster. Mr. Tolman rallied his forces and reconnoitred the field, and lo ! it was an ox with the missing pork barrel on his head, and the pork was still in it ! The animal had put in nose and horns after salt, and unable to extricate itself, had gone away, Samson- like, with the barrel and all.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE YEAR OF CORNER LOTS.
IGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIR- ty-six was the year of inflation and emigration, when the strong arm of the State, projected railroads and dug chan- nels of rivers, to encourage emigration, which came West in a steady and enthusiastic stream. Every man's farm was a possible site for a town, and corner lots were
as plenty as paper dollars. The hectic flush of a commercial fever overspread the face of the entire
State of Illinois. The dazzling example of Chi- cago had much to do with this, for they had in two years converted a miserable village into a city of several thous- and inhabitants-and it could be done everywhere. Speculators bought up all the land they could find, expecting to lay out town sites on their purchases, and public meetings were held and speeches made in favor of a system of internal improvements, which were soon adopted and begun. At Peru, on the Illinois river, a village of but one shanty, lots were held at $2,000 each. Four miles below Ottawa, on the river, is a long
162
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
mass of limestone, called Buffalo Rock, because it is said the Indians used to kill buffaloes by driving them over the edge. It is inaccessible from the surrounding plain
except at one end. On this rock a town plat was laid out by Benjamin Thurston, and recorded April 14th, 1836. It was called Gibraltar. And to crown the cli- max, four lots were actually sold, realizing $50.75. At NEWARK,
Nelson Messenger, from Ohio, built the shop which still stands on the corner north of Coy's store. His boards were sawed at Schneider's, and the poles for rafters he obtained of Geo. Hollenback. It still stands, a deserted relic of days long passed. Mr. Messenger used to furnish the government surveyors with charcoal to fill the mounds at section corners. At the same time, Walter Stowell put up a tavern where the hotel stable now stands. Heman Dodge occupied a house on Coy's corner, now used by Mr. Coy as a store house.
March 4th, on the Gridley place, Benj. F. Hollenback was born, now of Kansas.
During the summer, a lot of Indians encamped on the edge of the village, on the flat below the Institute, and remained several weeks. They had just received their annuity, and were fast livers while it lasted. They paid for all their purchases in silver franc pieces, and when they were exhausted, traded a pony at the store for a barrel of whiskey. When that was used up, and their medicine man and his helpers had dug all the roots and gathered all the herbs they wanted in Big grove, they stole the pony and departed.
163
AVOIDING CORDUROY ROADS.
Mr. Booth sold to John Litsey, just then from Ken- tucky, and now the President of our Old Settlers' Soci- ety. The two families lived in the same cabin during the winter. Mr. Litsey moved on his present farm in 1846, and in 1850 was able to enter eighty acres adjoin- ing, at government price. John Worsley, from Massa- chusetts, took up the present Worsley farm, east of Big grove. His son, Geo. H. Worsley, worked for several years for Mr. Prickett and others south of the grove, and died two years ago.
PETER NEWTON, WILLIAM SMITH AND JAMES ROOD came together from Broome county, New York. People along the road as they came would call out, "Michigan ?" "Illinois," was the reply. Mr. Smith was originally from Massachusetts. He bought his claim and a poor log house of a Frenchman, and resided on the same place forty years. Mr. Newton settled in the timber near Sheridan. His son, A. D. Newton, our present sheriff, moved to Newark in 1847, and kept tavern on George B. Hollenback's old site. This party came by boat from Huron, Ohio, to Toledo, to escape a notorious stretch of corduroy road over what was known to emi- grants as the Black Swamp, in Michigan. The rest of the way was overland, to Platt's, Holderman's and Mis- sion Point, to Rood's.
Other settlers in Big Grove were Mr. Bradfield, Mr. Hampton, Daniel Neff, Elijah Barrows, Mr. Collins, Jared Bartam and John E. Waterman. Mr. Collins changed the name of Duck Grove to Collins' Grove. Mr. Bartam, of Onondaga county, New York, kept the tavern at Holderman's. His widow, married again, lives
164
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
at Lockport. Her daughter is Mrs. Henry Cody, of
Lisbon. Mr. Waterman first settled on the Martin place near Lisbon, and afterward went to Holderman's. In November, John C. Phillips' dwelling house on the Southwick place, and Clark Hollenback's new barn on the Abbot place were
BURNED TO THE GROUND
the same day. The men and most of the neighbors were attending a lawsuit at Ottawa at the time. Mr. Phillips was deputy sheriff. His stock of provisions and all his furniture were burned. His wife, who was washing clothes at the brook at the time, being shut out of the house, took cold, and after lingering two years, died. It was currently believed at the time that there was foul play at the bottom of it, in connection with the lawsuit.
George Duckworth and family settled at Big Grove, where they remained two years, and then moved to Lis- bon, where they now reside. Rensselear Carpenter came at the same time. He is now living near Chatsworth, Illinois. Also a French family, named Devereaux. He was a silversmith, and afterwards removed to Joliet, where he died, and the family went to Racine. Also Daniel Dwyer.
LEWIS AND ALLEN SHERRILL,
Oneida county, New York, came that year. Allen re- turned soon after ; Lewis remained, and is to-day one of the first farmers in Kendall county. There are a few larger land holders, but he is the only man in the county who owns and farms an exactly square section of land.
165
JESSE JACKSON ARRIVES.
At Plattville, a son was born to Mr. McCloud, and Mr. Platt being privileged with the naming of it, called it after himself, Platt McCloud, and gave the little fellow a cow as dowry. A school was started in Mr. Platt's cabin that year. It was taught first by Phoebe Ferris, and the following year by Thomas Cotton. Benjamin Ricket- son arrived from New York ; was elected County Judge in 1853. Levi Hill's log tavern moved out from Holder- man's, was the first house in Lisbon. Rev. Calvin Bush- nell missed the honor by only a mile, as he put up a frame a mile south of Lisbon in the fall of 1835.
JESSE JACKSON
and family arrived at Ottawa, having come all the way by boat from Brownville, Pa., in twelve days. His family consisted of Elmas, afterward Mrs. Groves, now dead; Samuel and Jonathan, both dead; Mary, now Mrs. Fletcher Misner, of Millington ; Joseph, now in Millington; Wil- liam, in Minnesota ; Rebecca, now Mrs. Holston, and Eliz- abeth, now Mrs. Hanna, both of Indiana. Eight children in all. He was met at Ottawa by Samuel Jackson and Mr. Markley with a horse team and three ox teams, and the family and goods escorted to the double log cabin at Mil- ford. The distance is twenty miles and they passed but four cabins on the way. Jesse Jackson bought out Mr. Markley, and that fall the saw mill was started. It met a great want, and for ten years it ran night and day, and sometimes, by necessity, on Sunday. There were at times two thousand logs on the ground, and the mill would be six months behind on orders. But the gang saws of Michigan and Wisconsin at last outstripped it, and left the aged frame to bleach in the sun until a year
166
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
ago, when the spring freshet bore it away on its bosom to rest in a watery grave. Soon after Mr. Jackson arrived an attempt was made to establish a post-office there, but it was placed at Holderman's instead.
Henry Elderding the same season built a corn cracker at Millbrook, Dr. Gantz, a botanical physician, from Vir- ginia, built a house on the corner of the Millbrook and Millington roads, below Mr. Paddock's. Adjoining him, on S. McMath's place, was John Green, father of Lem- uel Green : and on the Russel place was Rev. William Royal. Going east on the same road were E. W. Wil- lard, now of Chicago, Wm. W. Pickering, now of Bos- ton, and Stephen and James H. Bates, now of Iowa.
Willard sold to John Cooper, and Pickering to John Sherman. Heman Winchell, Jr., settled on the farm near Fox Station, on which he lived nearly forty years. He died at Bristol, 1866.
Stephen and James Harvey Bates lived on the river below Mr. Grover's. Smith and Tuttle first took up the claim and sold it in Chicago to John Bates, who came west about 1833. Stephen Bates was a bachelor. Abram Brown, of Big Grove, then a boy, was their nephew and lived with them. He came in the fall of 1834 and stayed with Lemuel Brown in his Oswego cabin during the win- ter of 1835. It was hard times, and the boys often went barefoot daytimes and at night slept under the snow that sifted through the oak shingles of the cabin roof.
In June 1835 a camp meeting was held in the grove below Mr. Crimmin's, and attracted numbers of people, many of them from long distances.
-
167
MAIL TWICE A WEEK.
IN LITTLE ROCK
Luke Wheelock opened a blacksmith shop on the site of Little Rock village, on the creek by the cheese factory. He came out, like many others, without his family, and soon after returned for them. At the same time Philan- der and George Peck opened a store near where Dr. Bra- dy's barn now stands. Afterward Geo. Peck with E. R. Al- len opened business in Aurora and died there. Philan- der Peck removed to Whitewater, Wisconsin, and thence to Chicago, where he opened a dry goods jobbing house with Albert and Henry Keep, the well known railroad magnates. The house was finally known as Harmon, Aiken & Gale. The Little Rock postoffice was kept at Peck's store, and twice a week the tin horn of the Frink & Walker stage, running between Chicago and Dixon, woke the echoes of the grove, and scattered settlers after their weekly paper, or the precious and coveted letters from their far away eastern homes.
CORNELIUS HENNING
was from Rensselaer county, New York, and arrived here July, 1836. The family are large land owners, - owning some two thousand acres of land around Plano alone. Hugh B. Henning is dead; Jones, Denslow, and C. J. are still living, near Plano : also a daughter, Mrs. Otis Latham. Two other daughters are, Mrs. John Eldredge, in Nebraska, and Mrs. Charles Eldredge, in Kansas.
WILLIAM HIDDLESON
was from Ohio. He came by river to Peoria, where he met John Haymond, who offered to pilot him up and sell
168
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
him as good a claim as there was in the west. He came, saw it and bought it, and lives on it still. It was the old Cox claim, and part of the house built by Cox in 1833 is in use still. The fire-place was ten feet wide, and logs were hauled into it by horses, in at one door and out at the one opposite. George H. Rogers and William Noble came with Hiddleson.
Archibald Owen settled first on Big Rock, and in 1838 bought a claim of William Rogers on Little Rock.
EBER M. SHONTS
and Thomas Welch landed at Vandalia in 1835, and wandered up here and claimed a strip nearly a mile long, below Mr. Mulkey's, on the east side of Little Rock timber. They went back, and returning again the fol- lowing season, found the claim occupied by Franklin and Oliver Culver, who yielded to the original claimants. In 1837 Mr. Shonts sold to Elijah Pearce, and removed to the present homestead on Big Rock. George W. Rowley, John W. Gallup, William Ryan and James Scott were other settlers. Also Ashley and King, claim sellers. Mr. Scott went to Wisconsin, from whence he went to Scotland and came out with a Scotch colony.
CHAPTER XXV.
CROWDING INTO THE WILDERNESS.
N 1836, the village of Yorkville was laid out by Rulief Duryea. Only his cabin, in which he kept store, stood there at the time, but soon after Mr. Howe and Mr. Hay, a tailor, now living in Sandwich, built homes. Palmer Sherman and George Evans, father of John Evans, settled on the south side of Long Grove. As yet no one had the temerity to go further south on the prairie, but the lead was taken this year by
JEREMIAH SHEPHERD,
from Massachusetts. He found the groves pretty well circled, and determined to pitch his camp far out where the prairie flowers invitingly bloomed, and make a grove unto himself. It was a long time, however, before he secured neighbors, as there were no stage roads through that prairie to attract them. Mr. Shepherd's daughter, Cecelia, now Mrs. E. S. Satterly, was the first child born on the prairie south of AuxSable Grove.
12
170
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
The settlers in
BRISTOL
were Dea. James McClellan, Dea. S. S. Lathrop, B. F. Alden, Rev. H. S. Colton, Dr. Calvin Wheeler, John Eglington, Mr. Grimwood, John and Nathaniel Burton, and many others, who stayed but a short time. Dea. McClellan was from Chatauqua county, New York. He built the first frame house in Bristol, and having capi- tal, was a leader in every worthy enterprise until his death, July 11, 1867. Deacon Lathrop came to Chi- cago in 1834, and was a member of the First Baptist Church there when I. T. Hinton was pastor, and there were but twelve members. He was with that veteran missionary, Rev. A. B. Freeman, at his death. Mr. Lathrop still lives in Bristol ; so does Mr. Alden. The latter came around the lakes with Rev. J. F. Tolman, who had been east for his health, and returned in 1836. Mr. Alden has dug over one hundred wells in Kendall county, and in the winter of 1837 split for Lyman Bris- tol and James Gilliam, fifteen thousand oak and black walnut rails. He has worked as hard, too, on the under- ground railway, and still carries a deep scar as a memo- rial of a conflict with slave catchers.
Mr. Colton also still survives. He settled at Prince- ton in 1835, and the following fall came to Bristol. He organized the Congregational churches at Bristol, Oswe- go and Aurora. When he went from Chicago to Prince- ton, there was but one bridge on the road-that at Plainfield. It was made of poles laid across on stringers.
Dr. Wheeler was from Hollis, New Hampshire, and practiced in Bristol forty years. He boarded at first
171
DEATH OF DR. WHEELER.
with Abijah Haymond, at Long Grove. He was a man of extraordinary benevolence, giving medicines free and keeping open doors to all the poor. He and Dr. Ken- dall were for some time the only physicians within many miles. He was a member of the Congregational Church, a temperance man, an active abolitionist, and a great Bible reader. He died in May, 1876. The first Sunday School in Bristol was held in 1836, in Deacon John- son's house ; Mrs. H. S. Colton, Superintendent ; and she is Superintendent to-day of the Congregational Sunday School of Bristol. At
OSWEGO
we find Samuel Thomas and Henry Hopkins. Samuel bought out William Wilson, where Mr. Loucks lives, and was Justice of the Peace for years. He now lives at Chebanse. Henry lives in Aurora.
James Greenacre and Mr. Ross settled over the river. Mr. Hubbard kept the first store. Stephen B. Craw, Bainbridge Smith, and Maurice and Rufus Gray were prominent settlers. Joel Warner settled one mile east of Oswego, and afterward removed to Newark. Calvin B. Chapin, of New York, built the first blacksmith shop in Oswego. He came to Downer's Grove with old Mr. Downer in 1832.
Merrit Clark built a corn mill on the present site of Parker's mill. Levi Gorton and William Wormley helped put the first stick in the dam.
Merrit Clark had a chair factory at his mill, and made wooden chairs in 1836, some of which are in existence yet, and valued at more than when they were new. A grist mill was begun by Levi and Darwin Gorton and
172
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
finished the following season. They subsequently sold to N. A. Rising, who opened a store in connection with the mill. D. C. Cleveland, now of Newark, came that year, and lived two years in Oswego. Harrison Albee, of Clinton county, New York, still lives on his farm east of Oswego. Deacon Cyrus Ashley, of Plainfield, came out from Martinsburg, New York, with a consignment of wagons, and was only prevented from settling at " Hudson " by the solicitations of some of the "Walk- er's Grove " people.
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