USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 4
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The first election was held at Ottawa, March 7th. George E. Walker was elected Sheriff; Moses Booth,
53
LA SALLE COUNTY ORGANIZED.
Coroner ; and John Green, James B. Campbell and Abraham Trumbo, County Commissioners. At the first meeting of the commissioners, March 21st, David Walker was appointed Clerk, and the county was divided into three election precincts. Kendall county was in the third, embracing also Grundy, Kane and McHenry. The
SPRING ELECTION
was held at the house of Vetal Vermet, on the historical knoll by the prairie grove. John Dougherty, Edmund Weed and William Schermerhorn were the judges. Whether or not any came from Woodstock or Marengo or Harvard Junction to vote, is not recorded, but proba- bly not. The Kendall county settlers, however, had an official opportunity of meeting together and talking over their prospects which were undoubtedly improved. Sev- eral new comers were there, too, on that second day of April, who had not been in the precinct long enough to vote, but were interested in the matter of prospects. The convenience of the groves, the richness of the soil, the advantages for stock raising, the probable trouble with the Indians, the locality of desirable claims, mem- ories of far away friends, and incidents of frontier life, were all discussed, and then on foot or horse-back, or with the ox team, they separated to their lonely cabins.
CHAPTER VIII.
A
OUR EARLIER PIONEERS.
MONG those who came out prospecting in the spring of 1831 were
EARL ADAMS AND EBENEZER MORGAN, from New York. They descended the Ohio to the Mississippi, and then up to St. Louis, where buying ponies, they followed the banks of the Illinois river to Ottawa, and up the Fox to Yorkville. Reining up their horses on the present Court House Hill, they gazed on the lovely stream below them, the wide, beautiful prairies beyond them, and the timber behind them. The green was dotted with flowers, the birds sang in the branches, and a group of deer stood gazing at the strangers from the edge of a hazel thicket some distance away. "Here," thought Mr. Adams, " is my home," and dismounting he drove his stake in the soil and took possession. Following up the river about two miles farther, they came to a creek, where Mr. Morgan halted and made his own claim. This done, they passed up to Chicago, sold their ponies, and returned home by way of the lakes.
But before that, indeed as early in the season as it was possible to travel,
GEORGE AND CLARK HOLLENBACK,
from Magnolia, Putnam county, and their friends Wil-
55
HOLLENBACK AND OTHERS LOCATE.
liam Harris and Ezra Ackley, were on the ground. They were from West Virginia, and had approached the frontier by short stages; first to Ohio, then to the Wabash, and lastly to Magnolia. The men came first on a prospecting tour, in the latter part of March. Traveling on foot, they crossed the Fox river at Ottawa, passed over the high prairies of the town of Mission to Vermet's, and from there struck out for the Big Woods, above where Aurora now stands. At Specie grove they were informed that the Big Woods country was very wet, so they did not go as far as they intended, but encamped at a place near Oswego.
In the morning, while the others prepared breakfast, Mr. Hollenback strolled off on a tour of observation, and in a few minutes found and drove a stake on his claim. But it had been decided that they should settle together, and when the others objected that there was not enough timber there for all of them, he relinquished his claim. Where now ? Mr. Hollenback remarked that he had noticed a large grove on their left as they came up, which, from its lying low, seemed to promise desirable shelter as well as timber ; so it was agreed that they should return to that. It was Hollenback's grove, near Millbrook. They entered it on the east side, and it was at once settled that the ridge between the two creeks should be the dividing line, Ackley and Harris taking the north, and Hollenback the south. And that ridge is a dividing line still.
Then they brought up their families : Clark Hollen- back, wife, daughter and three sons-young men ; George Hollenback, wife, daughter and three sons, who were
56
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
boys ; William Harris, wife, three daughters and four sons ; Ezra Ackley, wife and two daughters ; Patrick Cunningham and wife; and William Brooks,-a little colony of twenty-nine souls. Clark Hollenback settled in the Newark timber, living in Hobson's old cabin until he could build his own, on the hill below Mr. Needham's. Cunningham put his stake on the opposite side of the timber, where John Boyne now lives.
In a few days Hobson happened along, and was not particularly pleased at finding his old house inhabited ; but Mr. Hollenback satisfied him, and they parted good friends. But it was the common law of squatter days that when a man forsook his claim, it was the rightful property of whoever should. next claim it.
The others settled on their respective claims and at once erected three shanties, viz : enclosures of logs, cov- ered with bark and split timber, to shelter their families while the houses were building. Mr. Hollenback's was on Hollenback's creek, near the present residence of W. A. Hollenback. Mr. Harris' was near the present site of a tenant house owned by Thos. Atherton, north of Ackley's creek, and Mr. Ackley's was near the ridge, midway between.
Arrived on the ground April 18, they immediately began to make clearings to plant corn, for they had rather plant among the stumps than risk the prairie sod. But Clark Hollenback broke, during the summer, fifty-five acres and fenced it in. It is now Albert Needham's farm.
GEORGE B. HOLLLENBACK,
the oldest son of Clark, started a pioneer blacksmith
57
FIRST FRONTIER STORE.
shop, which he afterward sold to his father and Mr. Hol- derman. When the summer's work was done, he built a log store in the edge of the grove, and going to Peoria on horseback, he took the boat to St. Louis and pur- chased a stock of Indian goods to the amount of two hundred dollars. They were brought up the Illinois river, and thence overland. This was the beginning of a frontier store which became widely known, not only among the surrounding settlers, but even in the States. It was the beginning of the business of Newark, or Georgetown, as, for many years, it was called-after the founder. His wife was Mrs. Reynolds, whose daughter is Mrs. A. D. Newton, of Yorkville. It is perhaps need- less to say that he sold but little of his goods for cash, but traded them to the Indians for muskrat skins.
Early in the spring, about the time Geo. Hollenback and party came up prospecting,
DANIEL KELLOGG
was on the move. Leaving Ottawa, where he had been chosen the first Justice of the Peace in LaSalle county, he came to Holderman's, and crossing the narrow slough, bought out Countryman, at what has ever since been known as Kellogg's grove. And the Indian fam- ily, packing their little property on ponies, bade fare- well to their old wigwam, and filed out among the trees and over the prairie in search of another resting place.
A few weeks after,
MOSES BOOTH,
on foot, with an ax and gun, crossed that slough, and weary with his journey, lodged with his friend and old neighbor, Mr. Kellogg. In the morning he set off pros-
5
58
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
pecting, and after exploring all day through the towns of Big Grove and Fox, found himself at dusk at the infant settlement in Hollenback's grove. Mr. Hollen- back's family had arrived that day, and had just estab- lished themselves in their new shanty. It afforded but little room, but what frontiersman was ever known to turn away the stranger? Mr. Booth was entertained, and in the morning, when no pay would be taken, he vol- unteered to cut down a tree, and did so-thus giving the little settlement their first lift. Then retracing his steps of the previous day, he choose for the site of his cabin the splendid knoll on the north-east corner of Apakesha grove, now occupied by the fine residence of Lott Sco- field. Looking out from among the tall white oaks that formed the border of the grove, his eye could take in the wide sweep of level prairie to Plattville, and around almost to Minooka. It would have been glorious to a poetic temperament, but Mr. Booth was a practical man, and proceeded at once to cut "a set of house logs." This done, he brought his family, which consisted of his wife and
ANSEL REED,
the boy who, four years before, went through the snow from Beresford's to Hawley's, in search of a needle. He was a slim lad, not yet thirteen years of age, and had been bound to Mr. Booth about two years. The coun- try had changed somewhat since his previous trip. Instead of two lonely families, out of sight of each other-the only inhabitants in eighty miles-there were five houses, and other little settlements near ; traders and travelers passing every few days, and Indians every
59
THE OLDEST HOUSE IN KENDALL COUNTY.
day. Ansel Reed now owns a fine farm near Plattville, and has a sister-Mrs. Emeline March-at Bristol Sta- tion. She was five years old at the time of the journey through Kendall. Mr. Booth remained at Kellogg's a few weeks, and rented of him five acres of land, to plant corn and pumpkins. But dissatisfied with his claim, for some reason-perhaps remembering the north- east wind-he made another in the adjoining Big grove, where a mile of heavy timber would be between him and the north wind in any shape. There, about twenty rods in the grove, on the south side, he built his house. It was sixteen feet square, and Mr. Kellogg, his son Ezra, and his hired man-William Teal-helped raise it, Ansel Reed looking on. It still stands, as a part of the residence of J. W. Mason, Esq., and was not only the first house in Big Grove, but is, without doubt, the oldest existing building in Kendall county, and as such we may hope it will be long preserved and cherished as a memento of the days that are past, and that will come again no more.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SHADOW OF WAR.
HILE Booth was building his house, the Ament brothers arrived from Bu- reau county, where they had been liv- ing several years. They were origin- ally from Livingston county, N. Y., in 1824. The eldest,
EDWARD G. AMENT,
worked a few weeks at Peoria for Joseph Ogee, an In- dian interpreter. Then came along John Kinzie and Medore Beaubien-the latter a young man, son of John B. Beaubien-with a Mackinaw boat and a two ton cargo of Indian goods for the fall trade. They were on their way up from St. Louis. Mr. Ament hired to Mr. Kinzie for ten dollars a month, and went with him. They made but slow progress working the heavy boat up the stream. When it would get aground, Kinzie and Beaubien would leap into the cold water, and one each end of an oar would push it off again. But at Marseilles they found it impossible to navigate further, and Mr. Kinzie, leav- ing the two young men in charge of the goods, went to Chicago after ox teams and wagons. He was silver-
61
AMENT'S EARLY EXPERIENCES.
smith to the Indians, making silver ornaments, brooches, bracelets, &c., which the wealthy Indians freely indulged in, and Mr. Ament's work was to do chores, cut wood, make hay, tend stock, &c. There were but seven fami- lies in the place. In 1825 he hired to the Claibornes, four miles up the north branch. There were two broth- ers. Archibald spent most of his time trading with the the Indians, while Henley helped work the farm. That year Edward helped a man by the name of Vermet raise the first log cabin on the site of Evanston. The logs,
instead of being raised up on forked sticks as usual, were pushed up on skids-a much easier process. In 1826 he went to the Galena lead mines, where his brothers were getting twenty-five dollars a month. He spent two years there working leads for himself, and then removed to Red Oak Grove, Bureau county, where he and his brothers were the only settlers between Galena and Peoria-fifty miles on one side and one hundred on the other. Early in the spring of 1831 he came up this way, prospecting, and stopping at Dougherty's, met Peter Specie, his old Chicago friend. Specie had a little farm, formerly, about where Bridgeport now is, two or three miles out on the south branch, and the good man was in such constant difficulty with his neighbors that he sorely tried the patience of Mr. Kinzie, then Justice of the Peace. Mr. Ament, however, had had no trouble, for he had had no deal, and Peter was glad to see him, escorted him to the cabin which he and Colonel Sweet called home, and there Edward made his claim, and returned for his brothers. Four came with him-Hiram, Cal- vin, Anson and Alfred-all unmarried, and the young-
62
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
est, Alfred, not more than ten years old. The eldest brother, Justus, was married, and remained behind. They arrived about May 10th, and set to work at once to improve their claim. They were entitled to the dis- tinction of being the youngest squatters in Kendall county.
About the same time
GEORGE HAVENHILL,
wife and two sons-Fielding and Oliver-and his son- in-law, Anthony Litsey, entered the county. Mr. Hav- enhill was born in Virginia, in 1778, and emigrated to Tazewell county, in Illinois, in 1830. His brother Wil- liam was the first white child born in Kentucky. Mr. Litsey had a family of four little children, so that the party consisted of ten persons. Part of Mr. Havenhill's family was for the present left behind. They found tem- porary shelter at Mr. Dougherty's and Mr. Kellogg's, and, renting a few acres of land, planted it to corn. Mr. Litsey placed his stake on the site abandoned by Mr. Booth, and using the logs already cut, erected his cabin nearly on the site of Mr. Scofield's present residence.
Soon after they arrived, Countryman, who had moved to Pawpaw Grove, came over to get some one to break up a corn patch for him, and Fielding Havenhill was com- missioned by his father to do the work. With two yoke of oxen, a plow and wagon, he undertook the journey, crossing the river by the ford at William Smith's and ate and lodged with the Indians while he remained. The squaws followed the plow in a troop, planting the corn and treading it in with their feet. It was a novel expe- rience for the young man, but he acquitted himself well.
63
THE HOLDERMAN FAMILY.
He brought back seed enough for their own field in Ken- dall. The summer was spent by the settlers in making clearings, building cabins, and making ready for winter. Geo. Hollenback was gone six weeks after one grist. He waited for the wheat to ripen, cut it with a cradle, ground it in a horse mill, bolted it by hand, and reached home with it just as the last loaf was being divided.
On the last day of October, 1831,
ABRAHAM HOLDERMAN
arrived with his family at Dougherty's and Kellogg's, in search of a new home. He came from Cass county, Ohio, having sold his property there, and was the wealth- iest settler that had yet entered Kendall county. Ansel Reed says : "November first was a cold, frosty morning. I was up before sunrise and drove Mr. Booth's oxen and wooden-wheeled wagon over to Kellogg's after a load of pumpkins and there I found the new-comers."
Mr. Holderman had eleven children, as follows :
Harriet, now Mrs. Peter Miller of Sheridan, Iilinois ; Ruianne, now Mrs. Newton Reynolds, New Lenox, Ill. ; Matilda, now Mrs. Samuel Hoag, Nettle Creek, Ill .; Caroline, now Mrs. Isaac Hoag, Morris, Ill. ; Jane mar- ried and removed to Iowa, where she died ; Henry is in Bates county, Missouri ; Burton, ditto ; Abraham is two miles east of Seneca, Ill. ; Samuel, at Morris, Ill. : Ja- cob is dead ; Dyson is on the old homestead, at Holder- man's grove.
Mrs. Reynolds was noted as a fearless rider, and rode all the way from Ohio on horseback. Mrs. Miller was married, and she and her husband did not come until the next spring. Mr. Holderman's first act was to buy
64
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
out Walter Selvey, who owned one hundred and sixty acres, of which one-half lay in the grove. The sale was made before Daniel Kellogg, Justice of the Peace, and and the deed was recorded Nov. 14, 1831. It is the earliest sale on record in the county.
Two days after, he bought out John Dougherty and Pierce Hawley-eighty acres each. The latter sale was made before Stephen J. Scott, a Naperville Justice, who happened to be present. Willard and Hadassah Scott were witnesses. The other was made before Mr. Kel- logg, with Bailey Hobson as witness. Edmund Weed, with his one hundred and twenty-eight acres, held out for a month, and then sold. The affidavits were made at Mr. Kellogg's, with Edward A. Rogers as witness. Deed recorded December 20th. Mr. Vermet did not sell until the following year. Mr. Holderman now owned the largest part of the Seminary section-the only land in Kendall county which was in the market, and to which a title could be given. Mr. Dougherty and Mr. Selvey went over to the Aux Sable grove and took up claims near the Lawton reservation, where they remained several years, but finally emigrated to Oregon.
Walter Selvey was undoubtedly the first settler in Na-au-say, his claim covering the farm now owned by David Goudie. Mr. Dougherty went into the timber nearly a mile north of Selvey's, where was a fine spring of water, and cleared up a little field with as much labor and patience as if prairie flowers did not bloom all around him. Mr. Selvey returned a few years ago to Aurora, and died there in 1876.
Mr. Weed after a while went to California.
65
FIRST WHITE CHILD IN KENDALL.
December 1, in George Hollenback's cabin, Geo. M. Hollenback was born, the first white child born in Ken- dall county, and to-day is one of our most valued citi- zens.
THE WINTER
set in early, and was known as "the winter of the deep snow." The Indian ponies were unable to find their usual feed, and some of them died. It was a lonely time for the settlers, though none of them suffered for want of provisions, of which corn was the chief. It was ground by beating it in a pestle made out of a block cut from a tree. An iron wedge answered for a mortar to
pound it with. The mail facilities were far between. The nearest office was at Ottawa. The next nearest was at Chicago, where a half-breed was the mail carrier. He made trips twice a week from Niles, Michigan, and easily carried the entire mail in one pouch, pony-back. So closed the year 1831. It was signalized by new cabins, and clearings, but the next was to be signalized by the
TERROR OF WAR.
Not all the Indians were involved ; it is Black Hawk and his turbulent Sacs who must bear the blame. And yet there were, doubtless, those who were more blame- worthy still, viz: Indian agents, who, to secure treat- ies, often made utterly false representations and prom- ises that were never kept-and then cheated in the pay- ment of the annuities, so as to secure a share for them- selves. There was a current conviction with some classes that among white men Indians had no estab- lished rights. As a gigantic instance of this see the
6€
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
Cherokee lottery, which was taking place the very year now under consideration-1831.
The Cherokee nation owned one million acres of land in Georgia. There were gold mines on some parts of it. The Georgians wanted it. The Cherokees declined to sell. The State declared the land seized and ordered it disposed of by lottery. The gold lands were divided into 35,000 lots, of forty acres each, and the remainder into 18,000 farms of one hundred and fifty acres each. Any freeholder was to send in his name and have a chance of securing, without any adequate money or price, a share of the coveted spoils. Eighty-five thous- The and men wanted farms, and sent in their names.
gold fields were more attractive, and were competed for by one hundred and thirty-three thousand persons. There were about four blanks to a prize. The drawing
was made at Milledgeville. There were two mission- aries of the American Board, Messrs. Worcester and Butler, with the Indians. They were their pastors and teachers, and feeling the utter injustice of the entire proceeding, gave their counsels against it. Refusing to remove from ther fields of labor, they were forcibly taken, and spent sixteen months in the penitentiary. Again and again they were offered their freedom if they would cease teaching among the Cherokees; but they would not yield. The U. S. Supreme Court decided against the State courts, but the decision was not regarded. At last they were released, and went back to their work.
Black Hawk's warriors had no such provocation, but were simply irritated by a long accumulation of causes. It was a war of revenge, in which they expected not to
67
COMMENCEMENT OF WAR.
·conquer, but to kill. And like a sudden thunder burst it swept down upon the lonely clearings of Northern Illinois.
CHAPTER X.
...
THE FIRST BLOODSHED.
NE OF the most prominent names con- nected with the struggle of 1832, is that of
SHABBONA,
the peace chief of the Pottawatomies. He belonged originally to the Ottawas, of Canada, and was born near Montreal, about 1775. While yet a young man, in company with a number of his tribe he joined the Pottawatomies, who were also from Canada and had emigrated to the Northwest in an early day. He subsequently removed to Northern Illi- nois, where detachments of his tribe had for many years had their hunting grounds. In 1832 Shabbona came into prominence as the firm opposer of the fiery chief of the Sacs and Foxes. They were both old men-one near sixty and the other near seventy years of age-and had been associates under the mighty Tecumseh. Black Hawk's town, at Rock Island, had been burned and he and his tribe driven over the river into Iowa; and
68
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
the treaty stipulations under which it was done, he claimed had been obtained frandulently. He burned for revenge. The Winnebagoes, occupying the country west of Rock river, spoke a dialect of the Sac language and were, therefore, foreigners to the Pottawatomies. But they were neighbors, with common interests, and upon these two tribes the aged Black Hawk depended for help in the contemplated war. He sent messengers to them to represent his cause, and finally
A GRAND COUNCIL
of the Pottawatomies to consider the matter, was held on the O'Plaine river, a few miles west of Chicago. Geo. F. Walker, Sheriff of LaSalle county, was present by invitation. The result of a long conference was that the tribe resolved not to take part in the war, and at the close, Mr. Walker and the renowned Billy Caldwell gathered a band of one hundred braves for the defence of the settlements, and put them under the charge of Waubonsie. During the war they marched as far as Dixon, but soon evaporated, without accomplishing much. As soon as the decision was reached, Shabbona made a visit to his old companion-in-arms at the Des Moines river. He represented to him how numerous and strong the Americans were, and besought him not to open a war which could but end in his destruction.
It was surely
A SCENE
worthy of preservation-those old chiefs, life-long friends as they had been, now drifting apart on the old and hard question of devotion to the white man. One, determined and bitter-the other, anxious and pleading ; one, burn-
69
SHABBONA AND BLACK HAWK.
ing under a sense of insult and injury-the other, con- scious of friendship and favor. O, the hard lines of some lives ! It is the rule that every man is the architect of his own fortune; yet, is there not something to be said about the election of circumstances ? We often go a way we know not. Fate is the child of sin, but is none the less sad. How good it is that in the great gulf stream of the gospel all counter life- currents may be swallowed up, and forever! And it is, whosoever will! Shab- bona's arguments were in vain. The die was cast. The dark-visaged Sac chief and his eager warriors had set out for Illinois and ruin-and that so speedily that there was no time to be lost. Meantime the Kendall county settlers were busy about their
SPRING WORK.
Being once assured that their own Pottawatomies were peaceful, they dismissed all serious thoughts of danger from their minds, and went on plowing and sowing and laying many plans for the future. The plans were not all of work, either, for Cupid visited those virgin groves. On May 1st, Edward G. Ament was married to Miss Emily Ann, daughter of Wm. Harris. Rev. Isaac Scar- ritt performed the ceremony. It was the first marriage within the present limits of Kendall county, and they took their wedding trip two weeks afterward, when they fled from the Indians.
EARLY IN MAY
the aged Black Hawk and his turbulent braves crossed the Mississippi at Rock Island, then Fort Armstrong, and passed up the north side of Rock river. Gen. At- kinson, in command at the Fort, followed them as soon
70
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
as possible, passing up on the south side, and so the long threatened war was fairly begun. At Dixon's a force of volunteers had assembled, under Major Stillman, which probably deterred the Indians from showing them- selves at the ferry there; for, making the circuit of the great bend, they crossed at Byron, thirty miles above. Major Stillman's company marched up on the other side of the river, and on the edge of a grove at
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