USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 17
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Bristol was left still further in the rear, and
BRISTOL STATION
was founded two miles and a half from the old village. It was laid out on the farm of T. S. Hunt. The first lot was sold to William Kern, the second to Messrs. Merrit for a store.
276
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Reuben Hunt was the first postmaster, and Alexander McLeay built the hotel. The village site was on a tongue of prairie between two groves, with Blackberry creek on one side and Rob Roy creek on the other. It was yet eleven miles to Sandwich, and plenty of room for another station ; so another was founded on the tongue of prairie between Big Rock and Little Rock timber. It was laid out Feb. 28th, 1853, and named
PLANO,
(Spanish for plain), at the suggestion of John Hollister. William Ervin put up the first house and opened a store in it June 7th. Calvin Barber built the second. Then Hugh Henning started business. J. C. Barber built the first hotel. All this before the first train of cars arrived, August 23d. The first post-office in that region was at Little Rock. Then at Post's, on the river, and at Penfield's, at the mouth of the Rob Roy, before it was removed to Plano.
During the summer, cholera broke out among the railroad hands. It was believed to have been brought by them from Ottawa. Seven men died on the track, and also Mrs. Napoleon Youngs, who was boarding the hands. Her little child soon followed. Also, Mr. Fish- ell, Mr. Borton, and other settlers .. Four years pre- viously, in 1849, the ravages of the cholera were so great, especially at Chicago, that a hospital and orphan asylum became necessary. But notwithstanding the increase of railroads, other roads were still needed, and the " Grundy and Kendall Plank Road Company" was incorporated, to build a plank road and establish toll- gates between Morris and Lisbon. The stock was divided
277
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
into eight hundred shares of fifty dollars each, but they were not all taken, and the plan fell through ; which latter fact every traveler well knows who has tried to engineer his struggling vehicle over the famous " Morris flats" in the soft and mellow spring time. A more con- tinuously exasperating road probably never was discov- ered, though it has improved in modern days. The
OSWEGO PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
was organized in 1853, and first worshipped in an old building now occupied by a German society. The pres- ent meeting house was built in 1857. The pastors have been : John McKinney, A. E. Thompson, J. H. Nesbit, H. A. Thayer, H. A. Barclay, W. K. Boyd, J. B. Andrews and Thomas Galt. The
OSWEGO LUTHERAN SOCIETY
was organized in 1853, and built their meeting house in 1858. E. H. Buhre, Mr. Zucker, William Binner and Mr. Koch being the pastors. The first church building of the Lutheran Society, at Lisbon, was also built in 1853, and the present one in 1872. Rev. P. A. Ras- mussen has been pastor most of the time. The
WHITLOCK SCHOOL,
Na-au-say, was opened in 1853. The following is a par- tial list of teachers' names : Maria and Sarah Wedge, Mary Terry, Cornelia Avery, Corvosso Reeder, Graham Duncan, Cornelia Carroll and Mr. Reese. One season previous to the building of the school house, Ellen Davis taught one term in a part of Parshall Reeve's house.
The history of the
NEWARK SCHOOL
properly begins with Mrs. Sloan's school, in Gridley's
278
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
grove, and Mr. Neese's school over Hollenback's store, about 1837. When the precinct house was built for a voting place, in 1838, it became the school headquarters also. Diantha Gleason was the first teacher. Among others were: J. J. Wilson, George Bristol, George B. Ames, Miss Ora Barn, Horace Day, Albert Learned, (who was killed while digging a well at S. Bingham's, in 1846), William Cody and James Harvey. The latter repaired the building after being damaged by fire, about 1849, and taught a select school for several years, while the public school was removed to the building now J. D. Erwin's residence.
In 1853 a school house was built, which in 1868 was replaced by the present one, and is now used as Fritt's furniture store.
Early teachers' names were : Wellington Mason, Wil- liam Nixon, Jennie Fowler, C. Willing, C. Winne, W. L. Wilbur, Fred. Freeman, Porter C. Olson, Harriet L. Porter, W. Scott Coy, Sarah E. Ament, Margaret Nel- son, Helen Lewis and John D. Waite.
A homicide occurred in the town of Lisbon, Mr. Foreman being killed by Andrew Wilson. Some foolish words had passed between them, when Foreman struck the other, and he in retaliation struck Foreman over the head with a rake, and a tooth penetrating the skull killed him instantly. It was a very sad affair, and the more so as Wilson was but a youth. He was tried and acquitted, but during the war he enlisted in the army and fell at Fort Donelson.
279
HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES.
Eighteen hundred and fifty-four was the birth year of two of our church buildings. The
NEWARK M. E. CHURCH
was dedicated January 25th, 1855. The list of pastors from the first commencement of preaching in 1847 is as follows : Levi Jenks, Mr. Wolliscraft, David Cassidy, Michael Lewis, Wesley Batcheldor, Robert K. Bibbins, H. Haggerty, W. P. Wright, Isaac Linebarger, J. N. Martin, John Frost, John Cummins, W. H. Smith, J. H. Alling, F. H. Brown, Philo Gordon, George Love- see, J. R. Allen and W. H. Fisher.
The first class was formed in 1850, and Elisha Bib- bins and G. D. Edgerton are the only remaining con- stituent members.
THE BRISTOL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
The Society was organized in 1836 by Rev. Mr. Parry, at the house of Deacon Elisha Johnson, who, with his wife and daughter, Justus Bristol, wife and daughter, James Gilliam and wife, and Lyman Bristol, completed the number of the first members. Rev. H. S. Colton was the first pastor. After him, L. C. Gilbert, Henry Bergen, James Hallock, Chauncey Cook, Beardsley Trall, W. Gay, Joel Grant, D. Webb, Mr. Granger, Mr. Hibbard, A. Doremus and Ward Batchelor.
The Kendall County Agricultural Society, still hold- ing annual fairs on its grounds in Bristol; and the Ken- dall County Protective Association, for the apprehen- sion of stolen horses and detection of thieves, were organized in 1854.
THE " LITTLE ROCK PRESS,"
a nine by ten inch sheet, was started in February, by
280
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Chas. S. Fisk, the village preacher, at twenty-five cents a year. The Chicago, Sterling & Mississippi Railroad, re-chartered as the Joliet & Terre Haute Railroad, was ex- pected through, and the paper says, "It must be the route to Chicago. This village has now two hotels and three stores, and will probably put up two or three church edifices shortly." But the railroad is expected yet, and twenty-two years passed before the first church edifice went up; which illustrates the difficulty of deciding in a new country where the channel of business will run. It is generally not local advantages, but position between distant business centers, that decides the prosperity of a village. But, fortunately, happiness does not always travel on the lines of business. The paper ran but three months, and was removed to Mendota.
At Oswego, Adam Armstrong started his broom fac- tory, and for several years did considerable business. With the passing away of the summer, that dread epi- demic, the cholera, again entered. It was not severe in the country, but in Chicago nearly one thousand fell victims to it.
The Little Rock cemetery, situated west of the village, dates from 1854. It was secured by a donation of two acres of land from Gilbert Fowler, to J. T. H. Brady, Henry Abbey and Alfred Houghtaylen, and their suc- cessors in office.
The first burials were Lydia Brady and Amasa Bush- nell, in 1855. Mrs. Hinder and David Hodgman were next.
The Yorkville school house was built about 1854, but the history of the school dates back to 1839, when school
281
PRO-SLAVERY EXCITEMENT.
was kept in a little building occupied by Norman Dodge as a probate office. The brick school house was built in 1842. Arabella Barstow, D. G. Johnson and B. Gif- ford were among the teachers. And in the present build- ing, Abbie S. Dyer, J. W. Fridenberg, Addie Clark, Lois Marston, Lizzie Smith and Hattie Morley.
THE YEAR 1855
witnessed the culmination of the pro-slavery spirit of our country, in the mob elections and territorial enact- ments of " bleeding Kansas." Among the laws made by that first Legislature was one making legal voters of all who paid one dollar poll tax, and another visiting the death penalty on any one helping a slave to his freedom. No more exciting times, except years of actual war, have ever been known in our land. Looking back upon it now, we can see how our civil war was as inevitable as if decreed by statute.
Coming down to our own county and to smaller mat- ters, we may chronicle that during the summer
THE STATE ROAD TO OTTAWA
was re-located by act of Legislature. It was first laid in 1838, by B. F. Fridley, I. P. Hallock, Almon Ives and Archibald Sears. Thomas Finnie and J. J. Cole were appointed to re-locate it, after its wear of eighteen years.
The new road was to pass through " Badgley's lane, the widow Gridley's lanc, John Boyd's lane, the lands of James Evans, George Hollenback's lane, over the bridge which crosses the Ackley creek, or river, the lane formed by lands and enclosures of John A. Cook and Whitman Stone, and by the southwest end of Long Grove to Pavilion."
19
282
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Oswego was incorporated with the following board of trustees : J. W. Chapman, L. B. Judson, J. M. Croth- ers, F. Coffin and Walter Loucks. There have been two years in the history of the town when they have had no saloon license.
SCHOOLS.
In the Fletcher school, town of Kendall, the early teachers were: James Bishop, Barbara Pletcher, A. J. Smith, Ellen Leach, Anna Howell, Lizzie Beatty and JennieSmith.
The Naden school, Big Grove, shows the following early teachers : Naney Barnes, Lucius Whitney, Sarah J. Howes, Milton Wright, Fred Freeman, Henrietta Howes, James Brown, Phebe Jilson. Helen Norton, Mary Hare and Wright Adams.
The Plano school is the largest in the county. There are three extra buildings besides Academy Hall, and seven teachers are employed. The principals have been as follows: J. B. Stinson, Mr. Huff, Joel Jenks, Mr. Gridley, Georgiana Smith, Mrs. Sill, Mr. Needham, Mr. Sly, O. W. Van Osdell, J. Evarts, Sarah L. Stew- ard, George Green and J. H. Rushton. The names of all the teachers would make a long list. Laura Ervin, Mary Berry, Jennie Cox and Anna Brown have taught several terms each.
In the Seward Center school, the early teachers were : Lucy Keene, Miss Tyner, Mr. Harvey, Arthur Raven and Lyman Gaskell.
In the Grove school, Na-au-say, the early teachers were : J. J. Evarts, Henry Town, James Andrews, Mr. Updike and Linda Bennett.
283
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS IN COUNTY.
THE FOWLER INSTITUTE,
Newark, was opened in the fall, with Miss Jemima Wash- burn as Principal, associated with her brother, Rev. Sanford Washburn. They had for two years been teach- ing private schools in the village. Dr. H. R. Fowler erected the building, and February 10th, 1857, the school was chartered under the name of the "Fowler Female Institute," and was afterwards changed to "Fowler Institute," in 1867. The first trustees were W. C. Willing, Horatio Fowler and G. W. Hartwell. Miss Washburn left in 1859 to be first Principal in Clark Seminary, Aurora. The following have been Principals since : John Higby, John Wilmarth, A. J. Anderson, D. J. Poor, J. R. Burns, A. J. Sherwin and J. P. Ellinwood. Among the other teachers have been : Ella Lent, Libbie Sullivan, Mr. Simon, Sarah J. Higby, Nettie Havenhill and Miss Shawber. This Institute has had at times one hundred and fifty scholars in attendance. It has connected with it library, cabinet, philosophical apparatus, etc., and offers in some respects better induce- ments to the student than any other school in the county.
There were altogether one hundred and twenty-four public schools in the county in 1855, making it the twelfth county in the State in regard to the number of its schools, while it was only fortieth in respect to its tax- able property. The average wages paid to male teachers, $29.00 per month; to female teachers, $16.00. The number of schools at present does not reach one hundred.
The Yorkville paper mills were built by J. P. Black, and ran for several years, making a first-class quality of white print paper.
CHAPTER XLI.
THE FLOOD AND THE PANIC.
IGHTEEN hundred and fifty-six opened with a very cold winter-one of the cold- est, indeed, that has ever been known. During the first two weeks in January, the thermometer several times indicated thirty degrees below zero, and for two months there was continuous cold weather and good sleighing. Ice was formed as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. In the spring, great floods followed, and the Oswego bridge over Fox river was carried away.
In the Presidential election, one thousand, nine hund- red and seventy votes were cast in Kendall county, and John C. Fremont ran ahead of both Fillmore and Buchanan five to one.
The "Kendall County Courier," our first proper county paper, was started in Oswego by H. S. Hum- phrey. In Newark, a barrel factory was opened by Mr. Moore, where Hull's stone shop now stands. In Big Grove, a steam saw mill was erected by Lewis Robinson. It was first started as a horse mill in 1852. In 1859 it was moved to Newark, and afterwards the machinery was taken to Tennessee.
285
SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS.
SCHOOLS.
The Lisbon Center school was opened in the present house in 1856. Before that three terms were kept in John Litsey's house, and several terms in a little house half a mile east of the present one. The following names of teachers date from 1848 : Sarah Niblo, Mary Brickley, Zuba Tuttle, Mary Williams, Mary Knox, Melissa Havenhill, O. L. Toft, C. B. Alford, R. C. Ma- comber, T. Macomber, Effie Andrews, Mary Brown, Huldah Bedell, Hannah Fosgate and Josephine Henry.
These lists of names are of course most interesting to those who knew the persons, and to such each name is a fountain of old memories which can never perish, and which will yet be more precious as they are recalled in the twilight of life, in the years to come.
The Sleezer school, Big Grove, was opened on Haven- hill's corner, in an old dwelling fitted up. After stand- ing there ten years, it was moved one mile east, and after ten years more was rebuilt and moved to its pres- ent site, half way back to the old corner. The teachers have been : Lottie Seymour, Diantha Adams, Mr. Erick- son, Helen Lewis, Lewis Bishop, Miss Wells, Wright Adams, Juliet Seymour and S. Ament.
The Lewis school, town of Kendall, has had the fol- lowing teachers : E. J. Lewis, Etta Martindale, J. J. Foltz, Mary Meeker, Lida Hallock, Augustus Collman, Lida Knowlton, Eugene Morgan, E. Moulton and Frank Lord.
The Shepard school, in Kendall, has been taught by the following teachers : Lucy Brown, Mary Ann Haigh, George Bishop, Hattie Wood, James Bishop, Ed. Kern,
286
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Margaret Leach and John Kerwin. The year before the school house was built, school was kept in an old log dwelling by Miss Parkhurst.
The Henderson school, Seward, has had the following teachers : William Jennie, William Green, Libbie Angel, Lavonia Ketchum and Miss Carroll. Twelve years before a school was kept in one of Frink and Walker's houses, near the Patrick tavern, but it was not per- manent.
The Agricultural Fair that had for two years previous been held at Oswego, was held in 1856 at Plano. At the State Fair, O. B. Gulusha, of Lisbon, took the first premium for the best half acre of potatoes-yield, one hundred forty-one and a-half bushels. Financially the county was flourishing ; " hard times " had taken their flight. Money was plenty, and people used it freely. Prices were good. The following are Aurora quotations :
Corn, 35c ; wheat, $1.25; rye, 85c; oats, 24c; bar- ley, $1.00; potatoes, 37c; pork, $5.00; butter, 20c; cheese, 10c; eggs, 22c. But extravagance must be fol- lowed by its penalty, and the penalty came in the sad revulsion of 1857.
THE SPRING OF 1857
opened with the most destructive freshet ever known on Fox river, caused by a heavy rain on February 6th, which melted the snow and broke up the ice and set the entire winter's crop free. All the bridges from Batavia to Ottawa were swept away, and the river was covered with boards, boxes, furniture, chickens, and debris of all kinds. At Oswego, Parker's saw mill was taken at a loss of three thousand dollars, and Rowley & English's
287
A TERRIBLE FLOOD.
lumber yard suffered a loss of one thousand dollars. At Millington half the village was flooded ; water was waist deep on Vine street, in front of Watters' store, two blocks from the river. The freshet extended throughout the country, and in other places many lives were lost. Houses were undermined and carried away while the inmates were still asleep, and they knew nothing of their danger until the hungry waters swallowed them up. Such another freshet has not been known in this coun- try ; yet each winter the materials for such another accu- mulates, and it is a striking exemplification of the good- ness of the providence of God that these materials are dispersed gradually, and rarely allowed to go out with the terrible and fatal rush of 1857.
But another trouble, felt in highland and river bottom alike, came in with the year. It is known as the
PANIC OF 1857,
the exhaustion following the excitement created by the incoming of railroads, in 1852, and fostered by the Russian war in 1854.
People lived too fast, and being too far removed from their base of supplies had to wait in the cold and hunger of bankruptcy until the supplies came up. It was not, therefore, a panic, viz : a mysterious fright, but sprang from a real and intelligible cause, and the effect lasted up to the beginning of the civil war. These lessons have been so often repeated that surely they should be well learned, and all who heed them when the next wave of prosperity comes will have an opportunity of learning the cash value of wisdom. The year, however, was marked in this county by several
288
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
NEW ENTERPRISES,
some of which were short lived and others became perma- nent improvements. Among the former were the " Ken- dall County Journal," started in Plano by A. Sellers. It ran but a few months. Also the "Kendall County Clarion," published in Bristol by W. H. Clark. An act was passed February 16th, authorizing Jeremiah J. Cole and Levi C. Gorton to build the " Oswego Branch Rail- road " from Oswego village to the Station ; but the close times that came on immediately defeated the project.
Two grist mills were erected; one at Bristol, at the mouth of the Blackberry creek, by Lane & Arnold, and the other five miles further down the river, at the mouth of Rock creek, by
FREDERICK POST.
Mr. Post was a Prussian, having come to this country in 1850, and was a man of energy and means. He threw a dam across Little Rock creek for his grist mill, and another across Big Rock for his saw mill ; opened up the roads that at present pass through that romantic, but forsaken looking region, added a lime kiln of eight hun- dred bushels capacity to the smaller kiln already there, and drew so much patronage to the place that it bid fair to be as important a point for the whites as of old it had been for the Indians. For tradition makes the lonely ravines to have been a favorite Pottawatomie camping and council ground. But the tide of circumstances that for awhile flowed to, eventually flowed away from the spot. The saw mill dam was washed out in 1869. Dur- ing the year the
PLATTVILLE CHURCH
was built, and in 1867 the Lisbon Center church, on the
289
CHURCHES AND PREACHERS.
same circuit. The pastors were: W. Royal, J. S. Da- uid, Mr. Morse, D. L. Winslow, Mr. Batchelder, Mr. Wright, S. F. Denning, F. H. Brown, W. H. Smith, H. Reed, Mr. Hibbard, Sanford Washburn, George S. Young, Benjamin Close, Robert Bibbins and G. Lib- by. Mr. Springer was in charge when the Plattville house was built. In former years Revs. Lumry, Phelps and Flowers used to preach in the school house and in private houses. Also the Plano Methodist church. The district was formerly embraced in the Indian creek cir- cuit, and Rufus Lumry, Wesley Batchelder and Obadiah W. Munger were successive preachers in charge. In 1845, the name was changed to Little Rock circuit, and the following were the preachers : Wm. Royal, Seymour Stover, Amos Wiley, Charles Batchelder, Stephen R. Beggs and Elijah Ransom. In 1857 the house was built at Plano, and the subsequent preachers have been Henry Minard, I. H. Grant, T. B. Rockwell, W. H. Fisher, W. H. Strout, J, T. Hanna, Sanford Washburn, Fred. Curtis and J. B. McGuffin.
The Millbrook church was built in the same year. The pastors were the same as given for the Millington church.
Of the schools which date from that year, the follow- ing may be grouped here : The Pearce school, Oswego, which has had the following teachers : A. Snook, Mr. Baker, Mr. Martin, Mr. Day, Jennie Hoyt and Delia Miner.
The Walker school, Oswego, which has had the follow- ing teachers : George W. Moore, Amanda Hezlep,
290
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Charles Doaper, Miss Hopkins, George Walker and Liz- zie Moore.
The Scott school, Little Rock, which has had the fol- lowing teachers : Catharine Tenny, Charlotte Cromwell, Mary Clifford, Olive Rowley, Benjamin Darnell, Caro- line Tenny, Sarah Favor and Samuel Davis.
The Van Cleve school, Seward. The first three teachers were : Richard Polk, Mr. Merrill and Mr. Gould.
The Serrine school, on the river bank east of Milling- ton, was an off-shoot from the older district, and ran but a few years. Miss French, Miss Walker and Miss Jack- son were teachers.
At least three
CHURCH BUILDINGS
were erected :- the Millington church, North Luther- an church and Lisbon Baptist church. The pastors connected with the latter up to 1870, were N. F. Ravlin, Mr. Bassett, Mr. Scott, Mr. Wolfe and J. H. Kent. All the churches were visited with such deep revivals of religion as had not been known among them for fifteen years. And this notwithstanding the condi- tion of the roads, which were unusually bad-worse than they had been since 1843. The reverses in business met with the preceding year, and the peculiar financial dis- tress of the country, were favorable, as such troubles always are, to devotion and spiritual life. So that many could thankfully say, with Psalms, 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word."
It was the want of this that led John Brenner to shoot
291
ANTON CONRAD SHOT.
Anton Conrad in Na-au-say during the winter. The difficulty originated while cutting wood in Aux Sable Grove. Brennen, to be revenged, came in the night and shot Conrad through the window, killing him, and then like a madman stayed around firing off his gun until morning. He was tried and sentenced to be hung, but afterward adjudged insane and taken to the asylum at Jacksonville. On the breaking out of the war he was released, and went into the army.
Not much of note occurs in the history of the year 1858. Business prostration continued and the wheels of society moved very slowly. The Becker school, Na- au-say, was opened, and the first teachers were Nancy Burns, Maggie and Louisa Cooper and James Buchanan.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE PLANO HARVESTERS.
HE year 1859 opened prosperously, and was an especially favorable season for railroads. The " Chicago and Plain- field Railroad" was to run from Chicago to Ottawa, through Plainfield, Lisbon and Newark. A company was formed and a charter obtained. The part of the company in this county were John Moore, John Litsey, A. K. Wheeler, William Thurber and Benjamin Ricketson. If the road had been built, the circumstances of those old prairie towns would have been different. The long con- templated " Joliet and Terre Haute Railroad," having lain still five years, turned over and took a new name. The first division was called the "Joliet, Newark and Mendota Railroad," and was pushed vigorously forward. The farmers along the line took hold of it, and consid- erable grading was done. But the only visible results to-day are huge embankments and deep cuttings, which the farmers can neither pasture nor plow, and which, if their origin should pass into oblivion, would be classed by our descendants with the mysterious works of the Indian mound-builders. And good old Newark, instead
293
DEATH OF SHABBONA.
of being the bustling junction of the Chicago and Plain- field Railroad and the Joliet, Newark and Mendota Railroad, is only Newark still. The latter road was to be the Eastern Division of the Illinois Grand Trunk Railway-and thus we were at once to be in the middle of the world. At a town meeting, held in October, Big Grove, by a vote of one hundred and eighty to ninety, voted to issue bonds for twenty thousand dollars in aid of the road-the interest to be payable when the line was graded through to Mendota. A thousand dollar bond, however, was issued, and one year's interest paid on it. In 1869 the town was sued for further payment, but with no result.
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