USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 18
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Another improvement made during the year was a bridge over the river, on the town line, at Post's mill. It stood nine years, and was carried away by a freshet in 1868. A part of the stone abutment on one end is all that is left.
July 17th, Shabbona, the hero of 1832, died on his twenty acre farm, near Seneca, aged eighty-four years. His wife, Wionex Oquawka Shabbona, followed him November 30th, 1864, aged eighty-six years, and was buried by his side in the Morris cemetery. A daughter and grand-daughter are also buried there-but as yet no monument marks the spot. Morris is an appropriate place for an Indian to be buried, as many of his race have been laid there. The cedar pole at the grave of the chief Nacquett still stands, or did a short time ago, and in 1845 no less than nineteen funeral mounds were visible.
The Faxon school, Little Rock, dates from 1859.
294
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Miss Haigh, Mr. Seeley and Mr. Smith were early teachers. In 1867, the old wooden building on the Bristol side of the line was superceded by the present brick structure. William Grimwood, and Emma and Amelia Spencer were the first teachers in it.
PLANO HARVESTER WORKS.
The originator of the idea of binding grain on the machine as it is cut, is Augustus Adams, of Sandwich, then of Elgin, who took the hint from Thomas Judd, of Sugar Grove, in 1850. The latter was testing a new McCormick reaper in the presence of Mr. Adams, when he exclaimed : " The day will come when men will not be so foolish as to throw their grain on the ground and then tear their hands in the stubble while getting it up again." It was a seed thought. Mr. Adams bore it away with him, and within two months produced the first harvester with a binder's platform. When the pat- ent was applied for, it was rejected, and for much the same reason as Capt. Ericson's little Monitor, was despised-for its strangeness. But in 1852 it was pat- ented by Sylla & Adams, and manufactured at Elgin. The elevator for bringing the grain to the binder was introduced by Watson and Rennick. The Adams pat- ent, in 1859, was sold to Aultman & Co., Ohio. There was a great prejudice against the machines for years, for they were ahead of the times. But they have outlived all that, and of the many kinds that are now made, two, the Marsh and McEwen, come from this county, although only the former is manufactured here. Messrs. C. W. and W. W. Marsh commenced their harvester in 1857, and built various experimental machines up to 1860.
295
THE INITIAL HARVESTER.
During the following winter, John Hollister and W. W. Marsh built one at Plano, which varied in several points from the previous model, and on trial was found to work well. It was the initial harvester.
In the fall of 1863 their manufacture was begun at Plano, by C. W. Marsh and George Steward, under the firm name of Steward & Marsh. Lewis Steward fur- nished the capital. They were made in the stone shop. The first building on the ground was Steward & Hen- ning's warehouse, with an engine for elevating grain. In 1858 Lewis Steward built the stone shop, though it was not yet determined to what purpose it should be put. For its first use, with the help of a warehouse engine, it was turned into a sorghum mill, and a sash factory by Latham & Doty followed. For the harvest of 1864, fifty machines were begun and twenty-six finished. The remainder were finished for 1865. In the meantime, under a contract with another manufacturer at Beloit, sixty machines were made, with some additional improve- ments-all of which were experimental. The finish of the coming harvester had not yet been reached. In 1866, one hundred machines were made at Plano. W. W. Marsh came in and the firm name was changed to Marsh Brothers & Steward, and from that time the business went on steadily increasing. The pioneer difficulties incident to such great undertakings were nearly over- come, and the Marsh Harvester was an assured success. In 1867-8, six hundred were manufactured. At the latter date Lewis Steward was received into the firm as an open partner, and the name became Marsh, Steward & Co. In 1869, seven hundred and fifty were manufac-
296
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
tured ; in 1870, one thousand; in 1871, fourteen hun- dred, and the same the year following : in 1873, twenty- seven hundred and fifty ; and in 1874, five thousand ; while during 1875-6, there were put out from the Plano shops, ten thousand harvesters. Gammon & Deering, of Chicago, are the present proprietors (since Oct. 1875), and they are making also the Sprague mower, the J. HI. Gordon binder, and other implements, and do a business of one million dollars annually.
The Marsh brothers have a manufactory of their own at Sycamore, where also their harvesters are extensively made, but the credit must ever remain with Kendall county of giving to the world the best harvester ever invented-one with which three men can do the same work it formerly required eight men to do. The old fashioned harvest time has lost its magnitude, and takes its place in the year with other ordinary employments.
In 1860, also, Nelson Messenger, of Newark, brought out his "Gopher," or corn cultivator, which has had such a run since, and is now manufactured by Edward Budd at the Millbrook factory. Parley Freeland had invented a previous gopher, in 1858, and the peculiar name appears to have been given to it then.
Two murders during the year disgrace our county annals ; one the result of a saloon brawl and the other of business hate. Stephen Jennings and a Norwegian, having had a previous quarrel, renewed it in a saloon in Newark, kept by Isaac Harris, and Jennings was killed. The murderer was acquitted on the plea of having acted in self-defense. W. Boyd was a money broker in Bristol, and was shot dead in his office one stormy night, prob-
297
MURDER OF W. BOYD.
ably by some one who thus took revenge for some busi- ness difficulty. No clue to the murderer was ever found, and he will probably have his first trial at the bar of God.
SCHOOLS.
The Bristol Station school house was built, and Gil- bert Lester was the first teacher ; then Mr. Alford, Mr. Boomhaur, C. Smith and A. D. Curran.
Two years before the school house was built, a school was kept by G. G. Hunt, in a small shanty where the Robinson house now stands.
The Windett school, Bristol, has had the following teachers : Nancy C. Young, Lyman Ford, Arthur Barnes and R. W. Grover.
The Booth school, Lisbon, has had the following teach- ers : Mary and Elsie Ayer, Ada Tupper, Maggie Leitch and Maggie Cooper.
The Worsley school, Lisbon. Sarah Lowry, Mary Brown and Miss Clegg were early teachers.
The same year the
YORKVILLE CHURCH
was built, Michael Lewis being the preacher in charge. A class had been organized two years before, and held its meetings in the school house. The succeeding pas- tors have been : Melvin Smith, Mr, Taplin, A. D. Field, Mr. Lee, J. B. McGuffin, John Ellis, Mr. Freeman, Mr. Cone, T. H. Hazeltine and Mr. Brookins.
In 1860, Fairview M. E. Church was built near Hol- derman's grove, on the High Prairie Circuit-named Fairview by Father Lewis. B. D. Linebarger and C. W. Batchelder preached there at a very early day. After 20
298
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
that, Revs. Plumb, Fiddler, Irving, Flowers and O. H. Hutchins preached in the school house; then, in the meeting house, Mr. Wallace and Mr. Adams, and, fin- ally, T. L. Helliwell. After the latter left, the society was too poor to maintain preaching, and the house was sold to Russell Wing for a barn.
The Greenfield school, Fox, was opened in 1861. The first teachers were : Mary Walker, James Ward, Josephine Hay and George Walreth. Its predecessor was the Rogers school, started in 1859, and had the following teachers: J. J. Baird and James Near. The first in the district was the Darnell school, built in 1849 in the timber near the Millbrook ford. Among the teachers were : Emily Webster, Cynthia Wood, Delia Southworth, Edward Malker, Amelia Smith and Julia Short. The two former schools were consolidated in 1870.
"OAK GROVE CEMETERY,"
at Bristol Station, was laid out on L. S. Knox's land in 1862. J. Loucks was the first one buried there. It is a pleasant site, and contains some fine monuments, espe- cially those of John C. Scofield, Orrin Kennedy, Au- gustus Boutwell, Joab Austin, William Thurber and Mrs. Susan Short. In 1863
THE MORMONS,
or " Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," made their headquarters at Plano. After the troubles at Nauvoo, in 1844, they were scattered abroad until, in 1853, in Wisconsin, a re-organization was effected under Joseph Smith jr. The first general con- ference of the re-organized body was held at Amboy,
299
THE LATTER DAY SAINTS.
Illinois, in 1860, at which time Mr. Smith was recog- nized as President of all branches of the church through- out the world. He has for ten years past resided at Plano. They have there a well ordered publishing house, from which they issue denominational books, and two semi-monthly papers, the " Latter Day Saints' Herald" -transferred from Cincinnati-and " Zion's Hope," a children's paper. They differ from evangelical believers mainly in receiving the Book of Mormon as of equal authority with the Bible. They have in Plano a church of about one hundred and twenty members, F. G. Pitt, formerly, and Elder Smith, the present pastor. They have also a church in Sandwich.
- The school house of District No. 5, Oswego, was built in the fall of 1863. Early teachers : Lyman Pike, Lizzie R. Winn, Mary Tremain, Mary Smith, Anna Mason, Anna Reed and R. V. Beach.
During these years ordinary items of interest appear scarce, because dwarfed into insignificance by the absorb- ing interest and larger magnitude of our civil war. This, like the rising of the sun, puts so completely out of sight all lesser orbs, that they drift by without drawing our attention.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE FIRST GUN !
N Saturday, April 13th, 1861, Fort Sumpter surrendered to the secession- ists. It was an exciting Sabbath that followed, and on Monday evening this dispatch was received at Springfield : "Call made on you to-night for six regiments of militia for immediate service.
SIMON CAMERON, Sec'y of War."
Four days afterward the following flashed over the wires to Chicago :
" TO GEN. SWIFT :- As quick as possible have as strong a force as you can raise, armed and equipped with ammunition and accoutre- ments, and a company of artillery, ready to march at a moment's warning. A messenger will start to Chicago to-night.
RICHARD YATES."
The dispatch was received at eleven o'clock Friday evening, and at eleven oclock on Sunday evening, five hundred and ninety-five men and four pieces of artillery started for Cairo. They were followed on Monday by three hundred and thirteen men, among them, Captain Carr's company, of Sandwich, in which were the follow- ing Kendall county men : Samuel Faxon, Lucien Hem- enway, Hiram Dayton, Thomas Darnell, Walter Atkins,
301
THE THREE MONTHS VOLUNTEERS.
William Hall, Alfred Darnell, Geo. S. Bartlett, Geo. A. Hough, Nicholas Costar, Jas. J. Hummell, Jas. Howard, Edgar Percival, William H. Ross, Henry C. Smith, Har- low Tuttle and Thomas Welsh. Another, Jas. A. Lan- nigan, enlisted at Springfield in Capt. Gibson's company.
These were our first offering to the war, and they were on their way five days after the receipt of the Govern- or's proclamation. Capt. Carr was granted his commis- sion on Friday, and in twenty-four hours his company was full. Capt. Houghtaling's company, of Ottawa, was one day ahead. All these troops were enlisted for three months only, and were armed with such guns and rifles as could be found at home or in the stores at Chicago. There were not more than six hundred available gov- ernment muskets in all Illinois. The Sandwich com- pany became a part of the
TENTH REGIMENT,
and most of them re-enlisted for three years, as did also the other three months regiments, numbered Seventh to Twelfth. The Seventh was the first, the preceding six having been raised for the Mexican war. The Tenth was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and took part in most of the battles of that region during the war. Their first Colonel, Benjamin M. Prentiss, became a Major General. Their flag was presented to them by the ladies of Alton. Out of their number, during the war, twenty-seven were killed, one hundred and twenty died from wounds and disease, and over one hundred were discharged for disability. The
SEVENTH REGIMENT,
in which were a number of our men, was in the same
302
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
army, and suffered a loss of seventy killed, one hundred and forty-four from disease and wounds, and seventy-five discharged from the same causes. They were in four teen battles. Seventeen of their number were starved to death in Andersonville prison pen in six months, from May to November, 1864.
But though the boys of the Tenth were the first in the field, they were not the
FIRST TO ENLIST.
That honor belongs to a company of Kendall county volunteers, without historic fame save in local history. Fort Sumpter fell at noon on the 13th of April, and in the evening of the same day, a crowded and excited mass meeting was held in the Court House in Oswego. Speeches were made by Judge Helm, Judge Ricketson, A. B. Smith, and others. At last Lyman G. Bennett was called out. He remarked that this was a time for action rather than words. It was a time when men were needed ; and he asked how many would then and there volunteer for their country. He held in his hand a paper with one name on it-his own. Who would go, if need be ? The spark of patriotism canght like fire in dry tinder, and in a few minutes eighty names were enrolled. James Cliggitt was the first to put down his name under Mr. Bennett's. The company was soon full, and drilled every day under Captain A. B. Hall, and awaited orders from the Governor to proceed to the front. But the six regiments called for were already full, and several hundred volunteers, the Oswego com- pany among them, were left out. Most of the accepted companies, too, were over-full, and among the most
303
THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT.
touching incidents of the time was the rejection of these surplus volunteers. Men who had left their homes at an hour's notice to enter the service of their country, wept at the disappointment of being refused admission to their companies on muster day. Provision was made for one month's pay for them, and they filed their rolls and were mustered out of service.
Some of the first Oswego company re-enlisted at Sandwich, in F. W. Partridge's company, and others at Aurora, in B. F. Parks' company-both of which were incorporated in the
THIRTEENTH REGIMENT,
under Colonel John B. Wyman, who was killed at Chick- asaw Bayou, Mississippi, December 28th, 1862. They lost during the war, thirty-seven killed on the field, one hundred and thirty-eight died from wounds and disease, and one hundred and fifty-eight were discharged. About forty Kendall county soldiers belonged to the regiment. At the close of the first three years of the war, it was consolidated with the Fifty-sixth Illinois. Their silk flag has become famous as being the first Union flag unfurled in Richmond after its evacuation. It had been captured, and was hanging in the office of the keeper of Libby Prison as a trophy, and was taken from thence by John F. Locke, of the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts, about 7:30 o'clock on the morning of April 3d, and given to the breeze from one of the windows of the prison. The Federal cavalry were about a mile off, approaching the city, and straggling Rebel soldiers were still on the streets. This flag, with many other battle flags, is preserved at Springfield. During the last week
304
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
in April, a company was recruited by Dr. Reuben F. Dyer, at Newark, for the
TWENTIETH REGIMENT.
The initial mass meeting was held in the Baptist church. . Speeches were made, and a large number enlisted. Fifty- five of Company K were residents of this county- mostly from around Newark. There were about seventy in the entire regiment. Captain Dyer, after nine months, resigned, and was followed by Captain John W. Boyer, and Captain Perry W. Spellman. The regiment was mustered in at Joliet, under Colonel C. C. Marsh, and at the close of their first year's service received a hand- some new flag from the citizens of Chicago, for gallant conduct on the fields of Frederickstown and Donelson. With the one exception of the Thirty-sixth, they suffered the severest losses of any regiment raised in this part of the State, having eighty-three killed on the field, two hundred deaths in the hospitals, and one hundred and sixteen discharges by reason of wounds and disease. But the
THIRTY-SIXTH REGIMENT
was above all others emphatically our own. It was recruited in July, 1861. Company D was raised in Lisbon by Dr. William P. Pierce ; Company E in Little Rock and Bristol, by Charles D. Fish and Albert M. Hobbs ; Company F in Newark, by Porter C. Oleson ; and Company I in Oswego, by Samuel C. Camp. Over three hundred altogether enlisted in this regiment from Kendall county. It was called at first the Fox River Regiment. Nicholas Greusel was its first Colonel. On his resignation, in 1863, Silas Miller succeeded, and after
305
DEATH OF COL. OLESON.
his death in 1864, from wounds received at Kenesaw mountain, Porter C. Oleson commanded. He was killed at Franklin, November 30th, 1864, and was succeeded by B. F. Campbell. Among the battles in which the regiment took part were Pea Ridge, Perryville, Stone River, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Dal- ton, Resaca, Adairsville, Kenesaw, Atlantic, Franklin and Nashville. The battle of Stone River was particu- larly and terribly severe. During these awful eight days forty-four men were killed on the field, and the killed, wounded and missing were three hundred and six, or nearly one-half the entire regiment. Colonel Greusel reported, " I came out of the action with only two hundred men."
During the war one hundred and twenty were killed, one hundred and eighty died, and two hundred and twenty discharged from disability. This does not include the losses of
COMPANY A CAVALRY,
Capt. Albert Jenks, which was raised in this county, and formed, with another company raised at Elgin, part of the Thirty-sixth. These and other independent com- panies were in the beginning of 1863 consolidated into one regiment, the Fifteenth Cavalry-our company being Company I. In the beginning of 1865, it was consoli- dated with the Tenth Cavalry, and lettered as Company M. It was in active service on the field during the entire war, and lost in the last two years, twenty-six died and twenty-two discharged. While the Thirty-sixth was still
306
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
in camp, near Aurora, Capt. Chas. D. Townsend received his commission to enlist a company for the
FOURTH CAVALRY,
Col. T. Lyle Dickey commanding. It was mustered in as Company C. About sixty-five men enlisted in it from this county, besides several in Company B, of which Garrett L. Collins was lieutenant, and afterwards cap- tain. The losses of the regiment were twenty-one killed, one hundred and sixty-five died and two hundred and sixty discharged. In 1865 they were consolidated with the Twelfth Cavalry-both regiments making but the full number of one.
The total enlistments from this county during 1861 were between four and five hundred, while our quota was but three hundred and sixty-seven-the entire quota of the State being about forty-eight thousand. Besides the regiments mentioned, we were also represented in the Eighth Cavalry, and Twenty-third, Forty sixth, Forty- seventh, Fifty-third and Sixty-ninth Infantry.
CHAPTER XLIV.
DEEPER STRUGGLES.
N THE fall of 1862, the number of our soldiers was doubled, as more than four hundred new men went to the front, prin- cipally in four regiments. Recruiting offices were busily running at the same time in Bristol, Lisbon, Newark, Little Rock, Plano and Oswego. The real meaning and magnitude of the war was at last thoroughly comprehended, and the country meant business. Com- pany H, of the
EIGHTY-NINTH REGIMENT,
was recruited at Bristol-Henry S. Willett, captain. He was killed at Stone River, and was succeeded by Frank- lin M. Hobbs and John A. Beeman. The entire com- pany, except two or three recruits, was raised in this county.
The Eighty-ninth was at first called the "Railroad Regiment." First colonel, John Christopher of the U. S. Army ; second, Chas. T. Hotchkiss. Its heaviest losses were at Chickamauga, where one hundred and nine were killed, wounded and missing; at Stone River,
308
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
one hundred and forty-two; and before Atlanta, two hundred and eleven. It was in twenty-five battles, and lost a total, as marked on the company rolls, of seventy-one killed, two hundred and eleven died, and one hundred and eighty-eight discharged. Yet these are not the complete figures, since deserters, pris- oners, and those sick in the hospitals at the time of mus- tering out, are not counted. Nor, indeed, would the figures be accurate even then, for at the close of three years the regiment numbered but six hundred, all told, out of a total of fourteen hundred veterans and recruits.
The figures given in this history are mostly from the official reports, but, probably, in the case of every regi- ment, should be increased by about one-half, in order to arrive at the approximate truth. Of the deaths in the Eighty-ninth, nearly one-fourth must be credited to An- dersonville. Fifty of its men were there first reduced to skeletons and then laid away in their hastily made graves. In this, it had a record unreached by any other Illinois regiment, except the Sixteenth Cavalry, eighty of whose brave boys sleep in the soil outside the pine log stockade of that awful prison pen.
The Lisbon company of 1862, Captain Thomas B. Hanna, was allotted to the
NINETY-FIRST REGIMENT,
as Company E. Capt. Hanna resigned at the close of the year, and was succeeded by first Lieut. Edwin Brown, in 1863, and Sergeant Frank H. Jordan in 1864. The entire company, one hundred and three in number, was from the southern part of the county. The regiment
309
COUNTY RECORD OF THE WAR.
was commanded to the close of the war by Col. Henry, M. D., of Morris, promoted, at the last, Brevet Briga- dier.
It did not suffer like many of the other regiments, losing through the war one hundred and thirty-five killed and died of wounds and disease, and one hundred and forty discharged for disability. December 27th, 1862, the entire regiment was captured by Morgan's cavalry, and after being paroled were sent to Benton Barracks, Missouri, where they remained about six months before they were exchanged. Their subsequent movements were to Vicksburg, and through Louisiana into Texas. Company G of the
ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTH REGIMENT
was recruited by Johnson Misner in Ottawa, and several Kendall county men enlisted in it. Captain Misner resigned in 1863, and was succeeded by First Lieuten- ant Selim White. Absalom B. Moore was the first col- onel, and Douglas Hapeman the second. The regimental losses, as officially reported, were seventy-one killed, one hundred and sixteen died, and two hundred and twenty- two discharged. Of the
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVENTH REGIMENT,
three companies were raised principally in this county. Company A was raised in Oswego by Captain William L. Fowler, who was succeeded by William Walker in 1863, and by William S. Bunn in 1864. Company F was raised in Little Rock by Captain Charles Schryver, and Company K, also raised in Little Rock, by Captain John H. Lowe. About two hundred and forty went
310
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
from Kendall county in this regiment. Colonel John Van Arman commanded-succeeded in 1863 by Colonel Hamilton L. Eldridge. Its losses were two hundred killed and died, and one hundred and fifty-six discharged.
Thus, five companies were taken out of this county, and that, too, in the busy days of harvest. The call for fifty thousand men from Illinois was made in July. On August 5th, the decision came that our excess of fifteen thousand could not then be noticed, as the gov- ernment wanted men, and that as much of the quota as was not full by August 18th, should be filled by draft on that day. Thus to raise fifty thousand men and avoid the draft, only thirteen days were allowed, but it was done. A tremendous enthusiasm rolled over the State, every patriot's heart was thrilled to see that the government was in dead earnest, and on August 16th, after the lapse of only eleven days, Governor Yates could announce the proud fact that the Illinois enlist- ment rolls were filled ! The quota of this county was two hundred and fifteen, a total with the preceding year of six hundred and eighteen, and to meet this nearly one thousand soldiers had gone to the front-more than one-third of all the able-bodied men in the county.
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