USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 16
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258
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
marked as Company E, 2nd Illinois. Thence they went by boat to New Orleans, and from there marched over- land through Texas. Following are seventeen of the names : A. H. Kellogg, William Sprague, David W. Carpenter, John Sanders, John Roberts, George Roberts, Aaron Fields, Edward Fields, James Lewis, Dr. Reuben Poindexter, William Joyce, Benjamin Van Doozer, Wil- liam Potter, Mr Tucker, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Hatch and Mr. Sheldon.
They arrived at the seat of war late in the fall, and on February 23d, 1847, participated in the terrible bat- tle of Buena Vista, which lasted all day and resulted in a victory for the American army, and a total loss on both sides of nearly three thousand men. David Car- penter and John Sanders are the only members of that company now living in this county. They were mus- tered out in Mexico, and arrived home July 17th, 1847.
When their term of service had expired, another com- pany was raised by Mr. Fullerton. Among the names were : James Nelson, Hiram Burdick, James Boss, Jo- seph Wilson, Vernon Hopkins, " Hickory Bill," D. C. Kennedy, John A. Yeigh. The last two enlisted in Aurora, but are now living in this county. No surviv- ing members of Capt. Fullerton's company, who went from this county, are known. They did not, however, reach Mexico in time to do much fighting, before the war closed, and Uncle Sam had lost some of his boys but increased his farm.
THE YEAR 1847
was signalized by its being the date of the first proposi- tion for a Pacific railroad. Mr. Whitney, of New York,
259
THE FIRST TELEGRAPH.
laid the proposition before Congress. It was favorably reported on by our Senator, Hon. Sidney Breese, called forth the encomiums of our Legislature, was the subject of petitions from Michigan, whence the proposed trans- continental railroad was to start, and, indeed, the nation was thrilled. And this, too, without the attraction of the gold mines, then on the eve of being discovered. But the financial winds did not favorably blow, and the project slept.
Early in the winter, the newly invented telegraph tremblingly knocked at our doors for admission, and it was finally granted in " an act granting the right of way to S. F. B. Morse and his associates through this State for his Electro Magnetic Telegraph." Verily, what hath thirty years brought forth !
The Mormon war at Nauvoo was finally closed up at a cost to the State of nearly forty thousand dollars.
The convention for the revision of the constitution sat at Springfield from June 7th to the end of August. John West Mason was the delegate from Kendall county.
Augustus C. French took his seat as Governor, in place of Thomas Ford, who could retire saying, " With- out being wasteful, I retire from office poorer than I came in."
A ripple of
LOCAL EXCITEMENT
was created early in the year, by an attempt to consoli- date Kendall county with Grundy. It originated with the people living along the line of the two counties, but the alarm quickly spread, and petitions with five hun- dred and fifty-three names attached were sent to the Leg-
260
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
islature, remonstrating against any change, and so the matter ended. Eternal vigilance was the price of county existence in those days. Toward the close of the year, small-pox broke out about Newark, and carried off sev- eral victims ; among them, Asahel Lewis, Esq., and Mrs. Henry Newton and child. But it did not spread to any extent into the surrounding country, which was an additional cause for gratitude on December 16th, the official Thanksgiving Day.
In the spring, Truman Mudgett opened
A BREWERY
in the stone building by the track in Oswego-the first institution of the kind in the county. But the soil was not congenial, and it ran only a few seasons. Ten years afterwards another and more pretentious one was erected on the east edge of town, but that, too, finally became a financial failure, and the building is now occupied by W. H. McConnel as a butter factory-milk instead of barley, and butter instead of beer. And both cows and men are the gainers. There is now neither brewery nor distillery within the limits of Kendall county.
Torkle Henderson, a well known Norwegian settler, made his claim on the prairie east of Nels O. Cassem's, and became the nucleus for a large number of his Nor- wegian countrymen. He was not the first, for Nels. Oleson, Chris. Johnson, and one or two others were on the prairie before him ; but from that time the Norwe- gian settlement dates its growth, until now they are num- erous enough to maintain two churches and two or three schools.
In the Minkler district, town of Kendall, a new frame
261
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL HOUSES.
school house was built. There had been two log school houses before it. In the first, opened in 1835, Lodemia and Mary Luce, James Butler and James Hubbard taught. The second was built in 1837, and had the fol- lowing teachers : Almon Ashley, Wesley W. Winn, W. W. Van Emmon, Harmon Minkler, Mary Stockton, Miss Judson, Malvina Ashley, Rosina Morgan, Alice Ashley, Miss Hill, Lizzie Winn, Isila Springer, Hannah Beecher, W. K. Beans, Samuel Kerr, Fred. Church, Mr. White, Mr. McCroskey, Mr. Mason and Mrs. Hoyt. The new frame school has been running thirty years, and the following is a partial list of the teachers : P. C. Royce, Mr. Goodhue, Miss Drew, Miss Walker, Lode- mia Morgan, Theodore Hurd, Wm. Minard, John Dodge and Miss Harkness.
The Asbury school is just over the line in LaSalle, but is patronized by Kendall. The house was built in 1847, and was named from the post-office near by. The early teachers were: F. W. Partridge, Elizabeth Fisk, Eugene Coe, Amelia Smith, Mary Bosworth, Mary Brown, Alexander White, Mary Scott, James Mead, Sarah Densmore, John Newman, Angeline Smith, Mr. Kern Jane Knight, and George Corcoran.
At the Bronk school, Na-au-say, the first teachers were Benj. F. Vandervoort, Philander Royce, Joseph Hall, Mr. Holliday, Parker Holden, and James Hunt. The well known
RED SCHOOL HOUSE,
in Big Grove, was built in 1847, and lasted twenty-nine years, before it was displaced in 1876 by a better one and sold to the township for a town house. It gave shelter,
262
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
therefore, to nearly sixty terms of school, besides spelling schools, lectures, shows, exhibitions, festivals, elections, caucuses, Sunday schools, preaching, prayer meetings, singing schools, and all the other public gatherings which nsually accumulate during a thirty years' experience in the center of a thickly populated township. The house was the successor of the " Old Log Church," that stood near by. The following are the names of a few of its teachers : Miss Day, Wm. Cody, I. N. Brown, Mary A. Brown, Hiram Scofield, and Frank Taylor. The new school house is a fine building, costing $1,200, and is an ornament to the town. It will be many years before it draws the sarcasm which the last years of the old one drew.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
EARLY seven hundred persons died of cholera in Chicago during the year 1848. It was a " cholera year." The Illinois and Michigan Canal was completed from Chicago to LaSalle, and was regarded as one of the greatest achievements of skill in the world. It had certainly been a triumph over immense financial obstacles. But the year is best remembered as the date of adoption of our second State Constitution. It was adopted by a very large majority, and went into operation April 1st. By it the counties of DuPage, Kendall, Will and Iroquois constituted the fifteenth representative district and the twenty-first senatorial district. At an election held the first Monday in September, T. Lyle Dickey was elected Circuit Judge for six years, William S. Fowler was elected Sheriff, and following is a list of all our Sheriffs to the present: R. D. Miller, C. D. Townsend, M. Beaupre, H. M. Day, Jonathan Raymond, Wright Mur- phy, Dwight Ladd, A. D. Newton, J. A. Newell, Jonas Seeley, J. D. Kern. At the Presidential election one thousand three hundred and seventeen votes
264
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
were cast in the county. About that time country towns in this part of the West had attained to their greatest prosperity, just before railroads entered to divert the trade from points where the grandfathers settled to other points which the grandchildren founded. There were two taverns and half a dozen stores in Newark; three taverns and nine stores in Oswego, and a propor- tionate number in our other villages, and all doing a good business.
In Little Rock as many as two hundred and seventy teams have passed on one road in one day, most of them going to or returning from Chicago with produce. The tavern at Little Rock village was kept by Ephraim Buck, and was a noted point. It was first kept in 1838 by Mr. Inscho, then successively by Arnold Dodge, Wareham Gates and Robert Matthews.
Oswego drew considerable trade and machine work from Aurora. The bridge across Fox river was built that year, and N. A. Rising's saw mill, opposite the grist mill. Mr. Rising ran two mills and his store for several years, until he sold to Mr. Parker in 1852.
At Lisbon the Methodist Church was built. Following are the names of the subsequent pastors: William Royal, D. Fellows, Mr. Sudduth, W. P. Golliday, W. P. Wright, N. Keegan, George Wallace, Joseph Eames, C. S. Macreading, J. Borbige, R. Wake, J. W. Phelps, G. W. Hawks, Thomas Cochran, W. R. Hoadley and Mr. Winslow. The church became a station in 1857.
THE OSWEGO BAPTIST CHURCH
was organized May 24th, 1848. The constituent mem- bers were Justin Lee, George I. Smith, F. B. Ives, M.
265
A PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE.
M. Forbes, Nahum Parkhurst, Giles Doan, Delany Smith, Mary Lyons, Frances Ives, and Sibyl Lee. The church building was erected in 1856. The following is a list of the pastors : Ambler Edson, L. P. Ives, R. A. Clapp, F. Kent, Edwin Bruce, S. A. Estee, Charles Button, Mr. Storrs, E. H. Sawyer, E. A. Ince, J. T. Green, J. H. Sampson, and Alfred Watts. At Plattville, John Boyer gave to the town the piece of land on which the cemetery is situated. Mrs. Sylvester Slyter was the .first one buried there. That year the Plattville school house, east of the village, burned down. No one knew it until the ashes were seen in the morning. In Little Rock village a new school house was built.
William Glasspool was the first school master in the first log school house, in 1839. One year before, one cold winter's night, by the light of an open fireplace, he was married to Polly Cook, by Wm. Mulkey, Justice of the Peace. And the marriage was as happy a one as if silks and kids had greeted the occasion. The log house was destroyed by fire in 1840, since which time school has been kept in a room fitted up for the purpose. The second department was added in 1858. The early teach- ers were Wm. Glasspool, Susan Lamson, Mahala P. Fay, Harriet Leigh, Hannah Tenney, Sarah A. Frink, Miss S. Densmore, William Knickerbocker, Ira A. W. Buck, Leonard Benjamin, and Miss O. N. Todd.
The following schools date from 1848. In the Foster school, Little Rock, the early teachers were Prof. G. B. Charles, Mary Ann Carver, and Hannah Tenney. The house is not now used.
In the Austin school, Fox, the early teachers were 18
266
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Sarah Raymond, Edward and Esther Bullard, Mary Van Osdel, and Lois Marston. Two years previously a log building was donated to the district by James Murrray, and school held in it-taught first by Kate Fleming.
Atherton school, Fox, was first started on the Solfis- berg place, Long Grove, in 1848 or 1849 and was taught by Mr. Davis. In 1850 it was moved down to the big knoll, and Geo. M. Hollenback, Sarah and Adelaide Ives, and George Ryan were the teachers. About 1852 it was moved up on the hill, on C. R. Cook's land, and finally, about 1867, it was moved to its present location.
In the Ware school, Seward, the early teachers were Mary Jane Goodhue, William Ely, Miss Berry, Miss Fra- zer, and Miss R. M. Arthur. The latter taught several years. In 1845, school was kept in a log house on Edward Jones' place, by Mr. Maxwell, who afterward became a noted man in Russia.
The present records of the
BRISTOL BAPTIST CHURCH
date only from 1848, at which time the church was reor- ganized ; but the first organization dates from about 1836, when the Pavilion church was transferred entire to Bris- tol. After some time, it seemed proper for the church to separate and "become two bands," and the Pavilion organization was again resumed. The meeting house at Bristol was built in 1857. Rev. Z. Brooks was the pas- tor in 1848, followed by Ambler Edson, John Young, and William Haigh. In 1861 the latter went as chap- lain in the army, and the pulpit was supplied by William T. Hill and Ebenezer Gale. Mr. Hill was ordained in
267
AUTHORITY TO BORROW MONEY.
1865, and went away. He was followed by M. M. Danforth, Jonas Woodward, A. A. Bennett, O. P. Bes- tor and F. M. Smith.
THE YEAR 1849
was marked by another county contest. The Board of County Commissioners, just before their extinction by the elections for Supervisors in the fall, wanted to bor- row money for county purposes, but had not the author- ity without Legislative sanction. For this they applied. But there was considerable opposition to the movement, and seventy names were secured to a remonstrance, which was forwarded to Springfield. It was unsuccess- ful, however, and the county fathers got their permission to borrow money.
The following is a further list of our
COUNTY OFFICERS,
beginning with those elected at the above election : County Judges-J. W. Helmer, Benjamin Ricketson and Henry J. Hudson ; Circuit Clerks-A. B. Smith, J. M. Crothers, George M. Hollenback, A. M. Hobbs and L. G. Bennett; County Clerks-J. A. Fenton, Geo. W. Hartwell, J. Cole and Jeremiah Evarts ; Treasurers-J. J. Cole, Asahel Newton, H. S. Hum- phry, R. W. Carns, J. C. Taylor, M. S. Cornell and T. S. Serrine ; School Superintendents-Rev. Ambler Edson, Ephraim Moulton, John Van Antwerp, John Mckinney, G. W. Barnes, W. Scott Coy and John R. Marshall.
Not many noteworthy improvements were made in the county during the year. A broom factory was estab-
268
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
lished at Plattville, at the church end of the town, and was the third house there, the other two being Dan. Krouse's little store and Mr. Converse's. The Luthe- ran cemetery, on the north edge of Big Grove township, was opened. Wier Sjierson, or Severson, as the Amer- icans spell it, and Wier Matre, gave the land.
THE OSWEGO METHODIST MEETING HOUSE
was begun, but not finished for several years. Follow- ing is a complete list of the preachers from the forma- tion of the first class at Daniel Pearce's house, in 1835: William Royal, W. Clark, W. Wilcox, John Sinclair, E. Springer, Rufus Lumry, H. Hadley, Wesley Batch- elder, R. R. Wood, S. F. Denning, S. R. Beggs, J. Hunter, Levi Jenks, J. W. Burton, J. Agard, W. B. Atkinson, A. Wooliscroft, C. Lazenby, J. C. Stoughton, S. Stover, David Cassidy, Michael Lewis, J. S. David, W. P. Wright, R. K. Bibbins, C. French, R. Wake, W. H. Haight, C. Foster, Mr. Hibbard, Joseph Cross, J. Davidson, E. D. Gould, Henry Minard, A. D. Mc- Gregor, J. J. Tobias and W. K. Beans.
The Plattville school was built in 1849. The early teachers were : Sarah Krouse, Thomas Cody, Roland Macomber, Miss Gould, Rogers and Clark Alford. The present building was erected in 1875. Kate Cliggett was the first teacher.
Mr. Stephenson was the first teacher of the Chapman school, Seward. Then Mr. Lott, W. A. Jordan, W. W. Roberts, and William, Lyman and Josephus Gaskill. The present building was erected in 1866, at a cost of $2,500. The first teachers were: F. G. Gaskill, Miss Turner and Miss Whittlesey. The Sunday School
269
FIRST BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.
there was commenced during the war. W. W. Roberts was the first superintendent.
The Bronk cemetery, Na-au-say, was bought of James Bird by Christopher Stryker and Peter VanDyke, and deeded to the school trustees. Many were buried there, but it is now abandoned as a public burying ground.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
TOWNSHIPS AND RAILROADS.
N 1850 the old county government by Boards of County Commissioners gave way to new Boards of Supervisors, by which at present seventy-four of the one hundred and two counties in the State are governed. The first Board in Kendall county were : Ebenezer Morgan, James McClellan, A. Sears, Thomas Finnie, J. K. LeBaron, William D. Townsend, A. Jordan, Horace Moore and H. G. Wilcox.
In Lisbon, George F. Norton was elected town clerk, and with the exception of two or three years has held the office ever since. All the Township Record Books begin at this date, though nothing of importance tran- spires in them for several years.
270
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
It was the great year for township naming, under the law. Some of the townships, as Big Grove and Little Rock, were named after the grove or the creek within their boundaries. Others, as Oswego and Bristol, were named after their principal villages, and still others owe their titles to the happy suggestion of some leading spirit at the town meetings. John Moore has the credit of having named the town of Lisbon, while D. J. Town- send and A. K. Wheeler receive the same credit for the town of Na-au-say. The latter was the name of an old Indian town on Aux Sable creek, and means "Head waters of the Aux Sable." In many cases several names were proposed and vigorously supported by their authors, and only after much discussion was a majority vote obtained for any one.
In Na-au-say, Charles F. Richardson gave the ground for the Union Cemetery to the town. Mrs. Nancy E. Johnson was first buried there. There was a growing need of more convenient places of interment, as well as places of education, as the population increased. By the census that year there were seven thousand seven hundred and thirty souls in the county. It was the first general census since the organization. And yet our broad acres were not only not all occupied, but not all entered from government, for John Litsey, of Lisbon, that year entered at the Land Office the eighty he still owns, opposite his present residence. The prob- able reason of so long neglect is that it was far from timber.
The Preston school house, town of Fox, was built a mile east of its present site, and afterward removed
271
UNION STORES FAVORED.
nearer the center of the district. Among the teachers have been Mrs. Storey, Hannah Badgley, Mr. Bosworth, Mina Crum, Charlotte Seymour and Elizabeth Petty.
IN 1851
there was a movement in favor of union stores. The people of a community would club together, hire a build- ing, put in a stock of goods, and hire a clerk to do the selling. By these means the consumers were to have the benefit of the profits. One was started at Pavilion, on a basis of fifty-three names, at five dollars each. Moul- ton and Ives were the clerks. Another store was opened at Plattville. But the plan did not work as well in prac- tice as it was expected to, and after a few years was abandoned. Competition is, after all, the best guaran- tee for fair profits in any business. That year the
S. W. BROWN SCHOOL
entered the present building. There had been a school for four years previous in Mr. Brown's house, taught by Richard Pope, Sarah Harkness and Miss Campbell. The following are the early teachers, names : Livonia Martin, H. Merrill, Prudence Johnson, Libbie Avery, Mary Hare, E. H. Pletcher and Helen Manchester.
This school has graduated, since its commencement, nearly thirty teachers from among its scholars, and has in this respect a record to be proud of.
THE NA-AU-SAY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
was founded as a Congregational church, and Rev. Mr. Chapman, of Plainfield, became the first pastor. He was followed by Mr. Reed, Mr. Walker, Mr. Loss, and Mr. Wood. During the latter's pastorate, the meeting house
272
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
was built-as fine a church building as we have in the county. Then came L. J. Stewart, and T. L. Jessup, the present pastor.
In Newark, at the old Messenger shop, Lot Preshur was making a few reapers that found a ready sale. Their chief peculiarity was that they cut a very wide swath, and were slow geared, having only a driving wheel and one pinion. They could, therefore, cut nothing but grain. The castings and sickles were made in Ottawa. After a little time, Mr. Preshur removed to Mendota, added a spur wheel to his machine, and came out with a new mower, cutting six and one half feet at a swath. Asa Manchester still owns one, and it will do fine work yet, though more than quarter of a century old.
IN 1852
was another Presidential election. Franklin Pierce car- ried Kendall county, though John P. Hale, the free soil candidate, received one hundred and fifty-two votes out of the thirteen hundred that were cast. During the year, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster died. The win- ter was unusually cold. January 19th was the coldest day that had been known since the winter before the Indian war. On March 13th was a great change in the weather ; the thermometer fell during the night fifty-one degrees.
An unusual degree of prosperity marked the year,- owing partly to good crops, but mostly to the general incoming of
RAILROADS,
by which, prices of both produce and real estate were quickened. The spirit of wild speculation, too, which
273
RAILROAD ENTERPRISES.
was born in 1835 and died in 1837, was aroused again, and led to the further crash of 1857. The following extracts are from Gov. Matteson's message: "The Chicago and Galena Union Railroad has been pushed forward with success, which gave a strong impetus to the desire for railroad improvements. The 'St. Charles Branch,' though but short, has given great business facilities to the town and country, and will no doubt soon be extended to the Mississippi. A little further south the 'Aurora Branch ' has given life and activity to one of the most fertile portions of Illinois. The Chicago & Rock Island Rail Road, commenced at a later date, proposes to fur- nish facilities to another inland section. This road is in rapid process of construction. Cars are already run- ning from Chicago to Morris, sixty-five miles, and before two years expire from the time the charter was granted, one hundred miles will be finished, to the city of Peru. The balance of the distance to Rock Island is in a state of great forwardness, and will be completed within a year. The manner in which these changes will affect the prosperity of the State is too palpable to need comment.
"Twenty years ago if those works had received a pass- ing thought they were regarded as dreams of imagina- tion. Then the commerce of Chicago was but a few thousand dollars and her population but a few hundred souls. Her commerce now is over $200,000,000, and her population fifty thousand. Then Waukegan, Elgin, Belvidere, Rockford, Freeport and Galena were almost un- known. Now they have become large and flourishing cities, growing with a rapidity most incredible. The
274
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
canal going into operation has made lively and flourish- ing towns of Lockport, Joliet, Morris, Ottawa, LaSalle and Peru, and added to the growth of all the towns along the Illinois river. These again have thrown back their wealth and forced Chicago into a growth which chal- lenges a parallel in any city, unless those in California."
Another road not mentioned by the Governor, and which more immediately concerns us, was the " Ottawa, Oswego & Fox River Rail Road." The company was incorporated August 22d, 1852. The road was to run from Ottawa to Elgin, via Oswego, and directors were chosen from each of the counties through which it was to pass. The Kendall county directors were Lewis B. Judson, Nathaniel Rising, William Noble Davis, Samuel Jackson, Samuel Roberts, John L. Clark and Johnson Misner. Among the LaSalle county directors were Robert Rowe and William L. F. Jones. But little pro- gress, however, was made, and two years afterwards, February 28th, 1854, the charter was amended so as to make the road run by Naperville to Chicago. But the C., B. & Q. Road succeeded in getting in first on that line.
The Johnson school house, town of Fox, was built in 1852, by subscription, for the use of the Lutheran society, but after six years it was turned over to the district. A Lutheran parochial school is kept in it four months of the year, but is entirely separate from the common school. A Norwegian teacher is employed, and the woodshed even is divided, one side being known as "district coal," and the other "church coal." Some of the teachers have been : Mr. Foltz, Oley M. Johnson, Oliver Hill,
275
BRISTOL STATION FOUNDED.
Anna Brown, Marthan Oleson, Miss Cassem, Caroline Dayton and Andrew Brown. The Lutherans have two other parochial schools in the vicinity; one by the North church and the other in the east edge of Big Grove.
CHAPTER XL.
NEW TOWNS.
HE Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad passed through this county in 1853. The Oswego depot was built a mile and a half from the vil- lage. It has been practically aban- doned since the Fox River Road came through, and no trains stop except they are flagged. Once in a while a strange passenger comes along, and the young Irishman in charge gets out his red flag, but most of the time he can watch his cow eating railroad grass, or feed his chickens on the steps of the deserted waiting room, with none to molest or make afraid.
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