USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 13
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Mr. M. says : "I had the ague almost constantly for the first year, and as I could get no quinine I was obliged to hunt up weeds and barks, which helped me but did not cure. But after a year it wore off." But in the case of many of the settlers it did not wear off so soon. Mr. Clapp ran the saw mill for Mr. Bristol, and was afterward killed by the logs rolling on him. One log was moved, and the rest, being on a side hill, started, and there was not time to escape. The old corn mill was also run, but was not so much patronized as other mills were near by. Clapp's log house stood near the site of Mr. Lane's barn. There was a ford across the creek, over the river at the same point, coming out on the south side near Mr. Graham's. Besides the build- ings mentioned there were the dwellings of Godard, Wheeler and McMurtrie, in a line on the hill, and H. S. Colton's, opposite Wheeler's. Colton's was afterwards bought by E. S. L. Richardson and cousin for a store. It is now Dr. Redding's residence. The west side of the village was heavily timbered, so far east as the middle of the public square, at which point the clay soil changed to black loam, showing that the prairie and the wood had kept their relative positions for a very long time.
Calhoun and Innis Grant came to Lisbon, Ephraim Bronk and G. W. and E. Cooney to Na-au-say, and J. P. VanCleve and Jacob Patrick to Seward. The latter bought of Henry Case Stevens the tavern started by Alanson Milks, and afterwards known as the "Patrick Stand." It was known in '39 as the "Wolf tavern," as Mr. Stevens had a stuffed prairie wolf for his sign. Some years afterwards Norman Grey kept it. Mrs.
208
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Grey was a renowned housekeeper, and her cooking was famous all along the line. It was on the stage route from Joliet, and Frink and Walker had stables there for their horses, and a number of houses and farms. There was an up stage and a down stage every day, besides frequent extras, and an immense amount of travel. One day when there had been a break down, seventy- five passengers and employes were gathered at the tavern for dinner. The stage drivers got $12.50 a month and board.
A cemetery was opened on Frink and Walker's land, in the field south of the present school house, and many were buried there, but it has since been abandoned. Several of the bodies were removed to the new cemetery hear the Ware school house when that was opened in 1857.
THE LAND SALE.
The last event of public importance in 1839 was the coming of the land in the market in November. It was a time of much stir and excitement, for it was now or never with every settler who wished to retain his land- with the exception of those who had bought Seminary lands or Indian reservations. Money was extremely hard to get, as the times had not improved since the crash of two years before, and the two hundred dollars with which to pay for one hundred and sixty acres of land was harder to raise than one thousand dollars would be now. Many a poor man for the sake of his little farm. the only source of his family's bread, was obliged to make such extreme sacrifices as perhaps none of the later generation have ever known. Speculators too, like birds of prey, were eagerly watching for opportu-
209
LAND SALE OF '39.
nities to pick up improved farms at government prices and re-sell them to the owners at a large advance, or turn them out of their homes. It was to guard against those pitiless enemies that the settlers in each locality clubbed together, promising to stand by each other and see that each had his proper rights. The first thing before going to the land, office was to settle every diffi- culty and to agree on what portion of land each would enter. Then a plat of the lands was made out and put into the hands of a competent person who was to bid them off and pay over the money-for the government did only a cash business. Almon Ives was the chosen bidder for the eastern part of the county, and Lancellot Rood for the western part. Each of them loaded a strong box full of silver on a wagon, and with a picked squad of men for guard, toiled through the sloughs to Chicago. The bidding had formerly been done in the open air, on a vacant lot, corner of Clark and Randolph streets. But so soft was the ground that as the crowd increased it actually sank, and they removed to the lake shore, and then into a building. One man stood at the foot of the stairs with a stout cane, and another at the top, and sometimes other guards between, and no one was allowed to pass except on legitimate business. . "Can I pass up ?" a sleek looking stranger would say. "Yes," was the reply, "but if you bid you will take the conse- quences." And generally he concluded not to run the risk. If occasionally a tract of land was knocked down to a wrong bidder he was prevented from going up with his money until after such a lapse of time that the sale was void. When all were done the authorized bidders
210
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
gave the lands over to their constituents according to the original plat, and they in turn re-deeded to each other to conform their farms to the new survey lines. Those re-deeds are the earliest entries on the Records in the Recorder's office. The first date after the land sale is March 4th, 1840.
On that day Elisha Morgan, Joseph Matlock and Wil- liam Harris each deeded to Almon Ives small portions to straighten their boundaries. Occasionally a settler was found who would not keep to the agreement, and refused to re-deed to his neighbor, in which case the other neighbors, sometimes from miles around, turned out, and Mr. Recalcitrant was obliged to come to terms. A case is mentioned further along in this work.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.
MONG the settlers of 1840 were J. S. Bib- bins, Dr. Temple, and Dr. D. B. Jewell, to Big Grove; Elisha and Elijah Misner, to Fox ; Truman D. Austin, to Na-au-say ; Elisha Hills, to Lisbon ; Josiah Ferris, Wil- liam Hoze. Thomas and Harrison M. Smith, to Oswego; Henry Cryder, William Bry- ant and J. F. Beane, to Seward; Henry Abby, Peleg Jones, J. T. West, Enos Ives, Rev. Mr. Woolson, Free man Gifford, and Edward Hall, to Little Rock ; Reuben Hunt, Samuel Roberts, Mr. O'Brien, W. O. Parker, William Briggs, Mr. Fishell, Curtis Beecher, C. W. Da- vis, Edward S. L. Richardson, Wesley W. Winn, Jonas Borton, and others, to Bristol and Oswego. Mr. Winn was our county surveyor several years.
Reuben Hunt settled next to Lyman S. Knox, and his was the first house on the site of Bristol Station. Mr. Parker built a stone store at Oswego, and did a large business for several years. Nathaniel Rising owned the mill. A Methodist class was organized in Lisbon, by Rev. E. Springer. The members were Solomon Wells and wife, Jervis Moore and wife, James F. Moore and
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HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Amon Heacox. No other religious movements marked the year. Settlers were slow in coming in, and improve- ments and changes were few. The prairie grass grew a foot high in the village streets. Between Holderman's and Marseilles there was not a single house. Between Oswego and Plainfield there were but two houses.
1840 WAS SIGNALIZED
by the birth of the famous whig party, in opposition to the Andrew Jackson party. Also by the coming in of the Mormons from Missouri. 'They built Nauvoo, in Hancock county, and after seven years of bitter strife and much bloodshed, emigrated to Utah. The popula- tion of the United States that year was seventeen mil- lion, and it was the last census in which negro slaves were returned as owned and worked in Illinois. Con- siderable interest was created over the question of the northern boundary of the State. The boundary line for some other States had been paralleled with the south- ern end of lake Michigan, but when Illinois was organ- ized, the boundary line commenced " at a point on lake Michigan in latitude 42 degrees, 38 minutes north." In consequence, in the early part of 1840, Gov. Doty, of Wisconsin, agitated the question of claiming the north- ern counties of Illinois, and attaching them to Wiscon- sin, and several mass meetings were held by his friends in those counties. But the plan fell through.
The year was ushered in by one of the largest spring freshets known. Fox River flooded all the lowlands along its course, and at Millington two acres of splen- did logs were carried away. Only two such freshets have been known since, in 1857 and 1868. But the last
213
MURPHY ON THE HARD TIMES.
two have had bridges instead of saw logs to exert their brief power on.
By the census of 1840 there were in the state of Illi- nois four thousand negroes, of whom one hundred and sixty were slaves : not all confined to the southern end of the State, either, for there were four slaves in Lake county and one in Kane county. The population of La- Salle county was ten thousand, but the men outnum- bered the women five to three. Kane county, with six thousand seven hundred, was more evenly divided. The internal improvement system had been abandoned, with the exception of work on the canal, and this year $147,000 was paid by the State as damages to contractors for cancelling their contracts on eight railroads and three river improvements. Times were very close, and the miserable wild cat currency of that day tended to make them more so. Mr. Murphy, of Cook county, in
A REPORT
on the suspension of specie payments, made to the Leg- islature, said :
"Instabillty pervades every department of business. The value of property fluctuates, not according to the regular laws of trade, and all kinds of business seem to be regarded as a species of lottery. The banks have made more issues of paper than they have specie or means to meet. They cannot pay three dollars with one by any legerdemain of the counter or till. During the expansion of the currency, property rises ; during con- traction it falls, thus giving the banks a glorious oppor- tunity of making fortunes from the public. They can make property dear or cheap. They can create a fam-
214
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
ine in Israel and have corn in Egypt to allay it, but will take care to sell the corn at their own prices. Our paper circulation in 1837 was one hundred and fifty millions, but a single fiat from Threadneedle street, in London, demolished the fabric and exhibited to the astonished gaze of American freemen the whole array of banks sus- pended or bankrupt and the whole people ruined. Fail- ures abounded, commerce was crippled, manufactures suspended, wages reduced, multitudes out of employment, values diminished, debts increased, and the barriers of commercial honesty destroyed. The depreciated paper was bought up by the banks at ruinous discounts. Such is but a faint outline of the effects produced by our banks during the late suspension.
All are but parts of a stupendous whole, Whose body is avarice. without a soul."
The people, however, as they generally do, held the administration as responsible for the distress, and
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
was a most exciting one.
Gen. Harrison was the Whig candidate, and as he lived in the West, the log cabin and the hard cider barrel became the symbols of his party. Many a drunkard dated his downward course from the "hard cider cam- paign" of 1840. Horace Greeley, then a rising young man, published a campaign paper, called the "Log Cabin," and it had an immense circulation. Songs were multiplied about "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." They were elected by heavy majorities ; but Harrison died onc month after his inauguration, and to the disgust of the Whigs, Tyler forsook the policy of his party.
215
SLAVERY AND ABOLITIONISM.
The county celebration of the Fourth of July was held in 1840 at Newark. The appointed speaker did not come, and Rev. H. S. Colton was called on, and in the course of his impromptu remarks referred to slavery. At once there was a tumult, and jeering cries were flung at the speaker from every side. James Southworth was chairman of the day-a staunch abolitionist himself -- but he was obliged to interrupt the speaker, telling him that for the sake of peace they had made an agreement among themselves not to agitate the subject. But Col- ton could not repress his convictions, or amplify on the gloriousness of our national freedom-with the freedom left out-so he left off his speech in the middle. The very name of slavery or of
ABOLITIONISM
in those days was enough to set any ordinary crowd on fire, and strange as it may seem, the great majority of the people even here in our own Kendall, as well as throughout the West, were so conservative in sentiment as to be virtually pro-slavery. An avowed abolitionist was despised, and even hated; but they were not want- ing, nevertheless. The blood of Elijah P. Lovejoy, like the blood of John Brown since and William Morgan before, was prolific of champions of the faith for which blood had been shed. The underground rail road, so called because of the secresy with which runaway slaves traveled over it, had stations and helpers in almost every village. Among the helpers were W. H. and William Lewis, Mr. Hallock, George Barnard, Abel Gleason, Zenas McEwen, Levi and Eben Hills, Ole Oleson, Ed- ward Wright, H. S. Colton, B. F. Alden, Dr. Calvin
216
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Wheeler, and others. In the northern part of the county the route lay through Little Rock, generally put- ting up at Dr. Buck's. Reuben Johnson, at Jericho, kept the next station east, and Mr. Beveridge, father of the Governor, the next station west. The latter had his barn burned in consequence. Like many other barns it had probably secreted more than one fleeing negro, and if that was a crime against God and humanity then the hated old frame was righteously consumed. But the anti-slavery feeling grew so rapidly in the years that followed, that Owen Lovejoy, that fearless champion of human liberty, who, when he first ran for Congress, received only 250 votes, was afterwards elected by 10,000 majority from the same Congressional District.
INCIDENTS.
Peter Stewart, of Wilmington, kept a famous depot, and was indicted on complaint of a neighbor before a grand jury at Joliet. Soon after a party of seven negroes came along, and Mr. Stewart, taking them in his wagon on his way to Chicago, called on his neighbor and intro- duced his passengers as southern planters going north for their health, The other was so taken back by Stew- art's boldness, and so astonished at the increase of the business under persecution, that when afterward by the help of friendly lawyers the indictment was quashed, he did not try it again.
Sometimes, however, by the force of circumstances, the opposition of those unfriendly neighbors was broken down. They had hearts as well as others, and their feelings of humanity were occasionally too much for them. Once to a conservative man's house came three
217
HELPING FUGITIVE SLAVES.
fugitives, black as three coals. They told their hard- ships, and their fears, and their hopes, and trusted that he was a friend. He was not, but in their presence he speedily became so, for his politics entirely gave way. His theory was straight, but his kinship for mankind was strongest. He fed and lodged them, and with his ,benediction sent them on their way. A similar experi- ence happened to old 'Squire Walker, of Plainfield. He was a strong opposer of the abolitionists, and often declared that helping slaves to their freedom was no bet- ter than horse stealing. But on one occasion a fugitive came to his house. The poor runaway was breathless with hurry and fear, and begged with broken entreaty for assistance in his extremity. Here was a sharp-
horned dilemma for the 'Squire. How could he repu- diate his own creed ? He was a law abiding citizen, and it was his legal duty to send back the fugitive. He was a democrat, and it was his political duty. He was a
Justice of the Peace, and it was his official duty. He had been loud in his protestations against the " railway," and it was his personal and consistent duty. But there was the trembling black man, and to that argument the 'Squire yielded, fed him and sent him on. In a little while the pursuer came, but strangely enough could get no satisfaction. The slave had been there, that was known, but where he had gone no one seemed inclined to tell. The slave catcher urged, and at last the other openly slaughtered his principles and declared : "I'll have nothing to do in the matter, it's between you and your God and the nigger."
One of the leading " directors" in Chicago was Dr. 15
218
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Dyer, a brother of George Dyer of Joliet. He was a bold, fearless man, and did efficient service in the cause. He was acquainted with the friends in the city, so when the trains arrived, viz : farmers with loads of wheat or pork, and a fugitive aboard, they reported to him and he found safe lodging places for the living freight. At one time the slave hunters captured their game, a colored man, and locked him in a room guarded by a sentinel, while they were obtaining the necessary papers to legal- ize them in taking him away.
Dr. Dyer heard the news and hurried to the spot.
" Who's there ?" the inside sentinel asked in response to the loud thumping of the Doctor's cane on the door.
"I am Dr. Dyer," was the reply, " and I want to come in."
"I have orders to admit no one," the sentinel answered, "and you cannot enter."
" Then down comes the door."
" I'll shoot you if you attempt it."
But the Doctor had come for a purpose, and smash went the door.
" Come out of this !" said he to the frightened fugi- tive in a tone of authority, " and take care of yourself quick."
The fugitive came out and was not long in sight, and the over-awed sentinel, with curses, saw the Doctor walk unharmed away.
Afterward, a southern planter, who was in Chicago, hearing the story, so admired the Doctor's bravery that he presented him with a gold-headed cane in commemo-
219
NEW SCHOOL IN OSWEGO.
ration of the event, which cane was for years his insep- arable companion in his walks about the city.
CHAPTER XXXII.
OUR COUNTY'S BIRTH.
OMETIME about 1840 the Oswego schol- ars gathered in a new school house near the site of Oliver Hibbard's shop, where school was afterwards kept for eight or ten years. Mr. Tarr, Mr. Thornton, C. G. Martin, Norman Sexton, Frank Cables, Miss L. Swartout, and Julia Applebee were among the teachers. In 1850 the stone school house was opened, with Chester Hammond as the first teacher. After him came the following principals : E. N. Lewis, H. H. Haff, James Allison, Albert Snooks, John McKinney, Warren Wilkie, Philander Brown, O. S. Wescott, J. H. Gano, Mr. Pearsall, Edward and E. P. Whiting, F. H. Metcalf, J. Thorp, Daniel Voor- hees, D. H. Taylor, L. Van Fossen, J. E. Brown, Milo L. Mason, and C. C. Duffy. The following names of primary teachers, also are especially worthy of being mentioned : Dorcas Schram, Lizzie Moore, Fannie Por- ter, Florence Childs, Libbie Murphy, Anna Brown, Amanda Weeks, Josie Forbes, Mattie Farley, and Pau-
-
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HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
line Wayne. Dorcas Schram has taught altogether over fifty terms of school.
The Plano cemetery was opened in 1840. Oscar Ryan, four years old, son of William Ryan, was the first buried in it. The same year the " Sandy Bluff" school, in the Alonzo Tolman district, Little Rock, began with a log school house. Alonzo Tolman, Jean- nette Leigh, Franklin B. Ives, Lucinda Ryan, and Mar- illa Tolman taught in it.
In the new school, built in 1845, Davis Rogers and Harriet Hyde were the first teachers ; also, Benj. Dar- nell, Amaretta Lincoln, Ann Sly, John A. Armstrong, Bryant Walker, Enos Ives, and Sarah Matteson.
The Stebbins school, in what is known as the " Ce- ment District," Little Rock, was the successor of the Young school, dating from 1840. Solomon Stebbins owned the place now owned by L. C. Gorton, and the school was opened in a log house, James Teaby, Emily Bean, Carrolton Hunt, teachers. It was succeeded by the Charles Raymond school, taught by Anna Lowry, R. M. Pendexter and Gilbert B. Lester. While the latter was teaching the house burned down, and he took his school into a part of Mr. Hunt's house. That was in 1849, and the cement school house was opened two years afterwards. The following were early teachers : Mr. Chittenden, Mr. Hough, Mr. Whitman, Mr. Cum- mings, H. C. Beard, Minnie Todd, Mary, Lizzie and Georgiana Smith.
In 1840 some of the graves in the
INDIAN BURYING GROUND
on the farm of L. S. Chittenden, in Little Rock, were
221
INDIAN BURYING GROUND.
opened by Frederick Rush, who then owned the place. The graves are in a row on the brow of the river bluff, which at that place is steep and high. The skeletons were found in a good state of preservation. In one grave was found a loaded rifle and a brass kettle with beans in it. The rifle was taken to Robert Casler's blacksmith shop in Yorkville, and being put into the fire in order to take it apart, the charge exploded. The grave was probably that of a chief or distinguished warrior, who was thus provided with food and ammunition for his long journey to the spirit land.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE
was the birth year of Kendall. The matter had been privately discussed for some time, and during the pre- vious fall a petition to the Legislature was prepared and circulated by Mr. Duryea and others. It received a large number of signatures from the LaSalle people on the south side of the river, and a smaller number from the Kane county people on the north side. A majority in Kane, however, were opposed to the movement, be- lieving their county not too large, and a remonstrance was circulated among them and numerously signed, pro- testing against the division.
November 23rd, 1840, the twelfth General Assembly of the State of Illinois convened at Springfield, and on January 4th, following, the Kane County Remonstrance was presented and read by Abram R. Dodge, Represent- ative from LaSalle county. It was referred to the Com- mittee on Counties, who decided adversely to it ; and on January 16th, the chairman of the committee, Milton
22.2
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Carpenter, from Hamilton, reported a bill for " An Act to create
THE COUNTY OF ORANGE,"
as the new county was proposed to be called. It was to be eighteen miles square, beginning at the north-east corner of the township of Oswego, and to include three townships of Kane county and six of LaSalle. Three days afterwards, January 19th, the bill came up for its second reading, the title only being read this time. On motion of Ebenezer Peck, of Will county, the name of the county was changed from Orange to Kendall. This was a political firebrand thrown into the House, for Amos Kendall was an Andrew Jackson man, his Post- master General, and Jackson was the most berated Presi- dent we ever had. The amendment, however, was
carried by a vote of fifty-one to thirty-four. Abraham Lincoln and Lyman Trumbull were members of the House, and voted in the affirmative. When the vote was announced, Joseph Gillespie, of Madison county, who voted in the negative, moved to further amend the bill by inserting the words "Honest Amos" before the word " Kendall." But the motion was laid on the table, and lies there yet. The further progress of the bill was as follows :
January 20th it was reported as correctly engrossed. February 1st, the title was read the third time and the bill was passed. February 12th, passed by the Senate. February 19th, reported as correctly enrolled, and on the same day approved by the Council of Revision.
Two other bills began their travel at the same time, and kept company with the Kendall county bill. One
223
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
was to create Grundy county, the other was to promote the welfare of our colored people, by requiring them to be registered at the circuit clerk's office ; and even that did not secure them from being claimed and sold as slaves. A board of commissioners, consisting of John H. Harris, of Tazewell county, Eli A. Rider, of Cook county, and William E. Armstrong, of LaSalle county, were appointed to locate the county seat. They met at Yorkville in June, and with a party of citizens pro- ceeded to several points in the county, finally fixing on Yorkville, as perhaps they foresaw they should from the first. April 5th an election was held in the different voting precincts, and J. J. Cole, Levi Hills and Reuben Hunt were chosen as the Board of County Commission- ers. The following were members of the Board up to the abolition of the office in 1849 : Ansel Kimball, L. D. Brady, Samuel Jackson, J. W. Chapman, C. Henning, S. G. Collins.
The remaining county officers in 1841, were J. A. Fenton, County Clerk ; A. B. Smith, Circuit Clerk. Kendall was in the Ninth Judicial District. Thomas Ford, afterward Governor, was Circuit Judge. Ten counties were included in the circuit ; court time in Ken- dall being the fourth Mondays in August and May.
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