USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 40
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The next family which came to South Dixon was that of James Campbell, with Mrs. Campbell, two daughters, Ophelia and Julia. The latter became one of the first teachers in the North Dixon primary schools and later married Eugene Pinckney.
Reuben Trowbridge settled near the present town or village of Eldena with his father and the family.
Hiram and Heman Mead came soon afterwards. Their brother, Alonzo settled a little further to the east in China township. Later in life, all three moved into Dixon and there died at advanced ages.
Just another story from the pen of Mr. Brown about another South Dixon settler which is most interesting: "Somewhat in contrast to these, was a man by the name of Hammill, who brought with his family from the poor-house of Buffalo, N. Y., a little child. The child was so shamefully treated that N. G. II. Morrill, the county poor overseer or poormaster, took her to his home in Dixon. Her pitiable condition excited the sympathy of the people at once. Her hair was dirty and matted, face unwashed and what do you think she was clothed in? It was an old coffee sack. with the
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corners cut off for arm holes, and a hole in the center of the bot- tom for her head; no underclothing, shoes, or stockings.
"Hammill prosecuted Mr. Morrill for kidnapping the child. When the case was called, he was ready with his lawyer, whom many old settlers remember; Mackay by name. When they ad- journed for dinner they went to the old Western Hotel. Just as they were through dinner, some men stepped up to Hammill with a kettle of hot tar, which they poured over his head and shoulders, the streams running down over his whole body; another shook over him a bag of feathers, and then they rolled him in the sand of the street. I shall never forget how he looked, lying there with closed eyes. I thought he was dead. But in a moment he opened one eye, then the other, and seeing the men busy elsewhere, rolled over and springing to his feet, ran to some bushes near by, then for home. He was a langhable sight. On the principle that the partaker is as bad as the thief, the men felt that his attorney de- served similar treatment and attempted to administer it, but the tar was too cold to run easily or to hold the feathers. He showed fight and came near killing one of the boys. The muzzle of his gun was knocked upward by a bystander just in time. The kid- mapping suit ended there, and so I think, did the career of Mr. Mackay in Dixon."
I may as well add that when the war broke out, Mackay was a violent southern sympathizer and he made so many uncomplimen- tary remarks about the northern people and our soldiers, that a party waited upon him and ordered him to leave town or swing to a tree. He went South and never was heard of again except by rumors now and then.
Mr. Brown's account of the old prairie schooner freighters is interesting and it must be reproduced.
"In an early day, provisions, pork and flour, were mostly brought from St. Louis, Kentucky, Indiana and the southern part of the state in large wagons with broad tires, high wheels and very high, long boxes, often 20 or 22 feet long. They made a track over a half wider than our common wagons. Drawn by three or four teams of horses, to eight yoke of oxen, and carrying from sixty or eighty hundred pounds, they well deserved the name of Prairie schooners. They went in gangs of six or eight wagons, with several men on horseback to pilot them and help avoid the sloughs. They sold their bacon at from 25 to 35 cents per pound ; flour from 25 to 35 dollars per barrel.
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"A few years later, while the men were working at the now abandoned track still discernible in places, of the Illinois Central railroad, some such traders would start from the southern part of the state, with large droves of hogs, carrying with them all the facilities for butchering-kettles for heating water, tubs for scald- ing, etc. When they came to a gang of men or to a village, they would sell, kill and prepare the meat for their customers. They carried their own corn, and gathered wood at the groves as they traveled; did their own cooking and were very independent. They lived chiefly on fried pork, coffee and hoe cake, made of corn meal, wet with water and baked on a board before the fire.
"It is said that when the prop for the board failed to do duty, they cast lots or plaved high, low, jack, to see who should lie on his back and prop the board with his feet."
Speaking of the old Illinois Central of the thirties, just as one enters South Dixon township, the old grade shows as plainly today as it did sixty years ago. The fill never has been plowed and the cut never has been plowed and in that out there grows an immense cottonwood tree. It is Lee county's best monument to the follies of the wild cat days of internal improvements. Jacob Groh came to this township in 1848. Among the other old settlers who moved in to South Dixon township in the thirties and forties, were Uncle Jacob and Aunt Polly McKenney; Christon Stevens; Henry B. True; Caldwell Bishop; Hemy Page; James Rogers; Matthew McKenney ; W. A. Judd; Nathan Hill ; possibly some of these men did not get here until the early fifties, but most of them came be- fore that decade.
The Illinois Central railroad runs through this township and the village of Eldena is located on section 36.
The Lee County Home for the Poor is located on the southeast quarter of section 26, abont half a mile from Eldena. Clyde Wicher at present is the superintendent of the home and Mrs. Wicher is matron.
When some years ago, 1906, the Northwestern railroad com- pany desired to construct a line or road or cut-off to avoid the steep grades of the main line through the city of Dixon, it was built from Nachusa to Nelson, and passes through South Dixon with a considerable curve, and in a southwesterly direction enter- ing section 12 and leaving the township through section 19.
South Dixon is settled by the very best of farmers. In this township Mr. I. B. Countryman's Oak Dale farm is located. Mr. Countryman is a wealthy retired merchant. He had been active
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so many years he could not be idle. He deeply loved a farm and so he purchased a farm in this township in the southeast quarter of section S. When purchased, it was said to be the poorest farm in the township. For years it had been stripped. Nothing had been returned to the soil and Mr. Countryman's many friends en- joyed much amusement at his expense for engaging in agriculture with characteristic city propensities of the agriculturist instead of the farmer. Mr. Countryman enjoyed all this badinage and proceeded with his program. He built very handsome buildings on the place and purchased some pure-bred Holstein cattle. Then he began building up the soil. Now he is reaping handsome bene- fits and profits from his investment. During the season just past he took from a field of alfalfa of nine and a half aeres, $100 per acre. Next year the field will contain twenty aeres and the pro- ceeds from it will be raised to $2,000. A twelve aere field of elover yielded forty tons of hay and five and a half bushels of clover seed. The hay at ten dollars per ton made $400 and the seed at ten dol- lars per bushel made $55.
From his herd of Holsteins he sold ten bulls for $1,250. Last season his cows averaged him $160 per head in eream. In all his efforts to raise the standard of productivity in farm lands, Mr. Countryman has kept accurate account of every cent which has gone into the place and all that has been taken from it and he finds that for every dollar of feed he put into his cows, he realized two dollars and sixty-three cents. His butter fat cost him twelve dol- lars and forty-four cents per hundred pounds and his milk cost .6643 to produce.
Every day his cattle are groomed. The milking is done by machine into air tight receptacles. Then the milk is placed in the milk house and cooled in the quickest possible time. After each milking, all tools are sterilized. Dirt is impossible. After each churning, a jet of steam is turned into each machine which steril- izes it.
Recently a representative from the State University from Champaign made a test of Mr. Countryman's cows. Four tests were made per day and samples were taken, one of them being at midnight. With the twenty-eighth milking the product was sealed and sent to the state laboratory at Champaign. The cow especially tested was a three-year-old, after delivering her second calf. This female ran sixty-four pounds in one day of milk and in seven days she ran 452 pounds.
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Very recently Mr. Countryman added butter to his Oak Dale prodnet. He puts his butter in beautiful receptacles made from spruce pulp, holding one, two or five pounds. These are shipped to a special line of customers at figures far above the regular price of butter.
Soil culture has been studied carefully by him. His land has been fertilized and charged with properties required to bring about the best results in grains and grasses and having reaped handsomely from his intelligent efforts Mr. Countryman claims that land at $1,000 per acre can be made to pay a profitable divi- dend.
Lee county may well feel proud of two enterprising citizens who more than almost any others have demonstrated what the farmer, the backbone of the country, may do if he will try putting intelligence into the ground along with fertilizers. These two are Mr. Countryman and Mr. Abram Ackert, now of Dixon but for many years an honored resident of Marion township.
Mr. Ackert is president of the Lee County Farmer's Institute and has been for many years. By his untiring efforts in securing demonstrators and lecturers here he has aroused a concerted effort all over the county for soil mending and soil medicines. Mr. Aek- ert is the pioneer in Lee county. Although retired now, and enjoying the blessings of plenty, like Mr. Countryman, he is con- stantly and unselfishly devoting all his time and all his efforts to better the conditions of his old time friend the farmer. Latterly too in this same township of South Dixon, Mr. C. B. Swartz, has bought a farm. He has stocked it with Holstein cattle and Duroc Jersey Red Swine and by the most systematic and painstaking efforts, he is building up a farm which is doing wonderful work for him. Like Mr. Countryman, he weighs each ration for his cattle and at the end of each day and each week Mr. Swartz can tell how any one of his animals stands gauged by the standard of profit and loss.
CHAPTER XXXV
SUBLETTE TOWNSHIP*
Here is one more township carved out of old Inlet. It joins Lee Center on the south and its inhabitants took active part and stood up against the common enemy, the banditti, with the same courage.
Sublette in the very earliest days was inhabited by the sturdiest of settlers and to this day the sons and daughters of those old pioneers are just as sturdy, industrious, thrifty, intelligent and honorable as the old forefathers who lie buried in the two or three cemeteries down there. Sublette village was platted as Soublette. Many have thought it took its name from the circumstance of that particular section of the railroad being sublet. But as every other section of the road, alnost, was sublet in parts by the original con- tractor, the suggestion should have no consideration. The name of the original plat, Soublette, should regulate the name. As to who the individual, Soublette, was, the oldest inhabitant cannot tell. He must have been a non-resident.
The eastern terminus of Palestine Grove will be found in this township on sections 5, 6 and 7. Knox Grove is almost exclusively in this township, along Bureau creek. The old Chicago road run- ning from Princeton ran through Sublette township. A part of another old state road running from LaSalle to Grand Detour in the halcyon days of the latter, may be traced through the township to this very day, through sections 17 and 18. The old Black Hawk trail made by the army in 1832, on its trips to and from Ottawa. and to and from Fort Wilbourn-the old telegraph and stage line between Dixon and Peru-entered the town at the northwest corner
* For much of this valuable information the author is indebted to Paul Reis, associate editor.
Vol. 1-29
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of section 30 and left near the center of the south line of the same section.
It seems agreed that the first permanent settlement began here in the year 1837. Jonathan Peterson came over from Ottawa in October, 1836. He had come originally from New Hampshire. He spent the winter of 1836-37 in Ottawa. In February, 1837, he started for Lee county. During the summer he made his claim on the northwest quarter of section 4. He built his cabin just over the line in what became Lee Center township subsequently. Then he returned to New Hampshire where he married and in 1838 he returned to Sublette.
In 1837, the month of June, Sherman L. Hateh reached Dixon. To him, Inlet appeared more promising and to Inlet he went, to the house of C. F. Ingalls, who had settled there the year previous. That autunm he made his claim on the southwest quarter of section 7, where he built a log house. As though imitating the example of Peterson, he immediately returned to Vermont, was married. and the next year he returned.
In the autumn of 1838, Thomas and William Fessenden, with their families, came into Sublette from New Hampshire. They claimed land in sections 6 and 7, built a log house on the northwest quarter of 7, and moved into it in December. This is called the first real settlement in the township.
In 1838, Joseph Knox settled in the south end of the grove which took on his name. The same year, Sylvanus Peterson moved onto the southeast quarter of 5. Sometime before the year 1840, John Morton, R. E. Goodsall, settled. In 1839, Daniel Baird set- tled on the Grand Detour and LaSalle road.
In this same year, 1839, Phineas Rust built the first frame house in Sublette township, on section 30. Philo Stannard and Thomas S. Angier were there in 1840. Thomas Tourtillott was there too in 1840 and built a frame house 16x20 on section 31, and O. Bryant settled on the old Chicago road, on section 35.
Hiram Anderson, the man whose claim was jumped and with which claim Bull of Dixon was mixed up, lived in Sublette, and the exact description of that celebrated claim is the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 33, and 1843 was the year during which Anderson settled on it.
About this time came Ephraim Reniff, 1843; Alpheus Crawford, 1844: Daniel Pratt ; Levi Camp: Prescott Bartlett; Silas Reniff; Mr. Rogers; John and Hezekiah MeKune. At this period, the year 1844, the immigrants who came to Sublette were to throw the
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character of the settlers from New England to Germany, and to this day Sublette bears the imprint of Jacob Betz, the first German settler of Sublette. He took up a claim, the southeast quarter of section 33, near the timber known as Perkins Grove. He erected a log house and without loss of time began breaking up the virgin prairie. Like John Hotzell of Bradford, he became the pole star of old and young German friends back home. He wrote them his experiences and his views and the next year, 1845, Mathias Reis came there to live, finding with Mr. Betz a hearty welcome. ILe spent the summer and fall with Mr. Betz and in the winter time he split rails for Mr. Betz all winter for 50 cents per day.
Mr. Reis was made of manly stuff. Splendidly built; erect; a stout heart and afraid of nothing.
The country furnished many surprises for him who never had seen a new country. One day when Mr. Reis was busy at work splitting rails, he lifted his eyes from his work and there opposite the log he was splitting, stood a deer. Instantly he lifted his axe and threw it, but the deer darted aside and out of sight. After splitting several thousand rails that winter, Mr. Betz gave him a raise of 10 cents per day. During the following year, he continued in the employ of Mr. Betz. By the hardest kind of work and by the exercise of the closest kind of economy he saved enough money to buy 120 acres of land.
I may say that with the entrance of these two gentlemen I may begin my work on the Germans of Lee county, so far as they con- cern Sublette. In Sublette and Bradford the Germans predomi- nated and do to this day. Now, the children have spread over into China, Ashton, and the population is made up very largely of German people, though of course younger ; some of them belonging to the fifth generation.
In the year 1852, May the 6th, Mr. Reis married Miss Catherine Theiss, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bartholomai Theiss. He built a house on his land in section 28 and began that successful life which became his.
Chicago in those days was the market place, and in common with all others who were compelled to go there, bad roads, sloughs and swamps played havoc many times with their journeys. One of the remedies applied to prevent miring down was to place sacks of grain ahead of the wheels : drive over them and after a long and tiresome effort, the other side was accomplished and much good grain was spoiled. Groceries generally were all that could be brought back in exchange for the grain. One of Mr. Reis's trading
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places was very near the present site of the courthouse in Chicago and there for a long while was posted the sign, "Beware! No Bottom." Later, Peru became the market center for the people of that part of Lee county. Travel was invited that way and greatly accelerated by the laying of a plank road for several miles. That plank road was regarded with the same feelings of superiority over their neighbors as settlers in a favored locality regarded the rail- road when it came along and superseded the plank road. This plank road was called the toll road and for a considerable while it made Peru famous.
At the time of his death, Mr. Reis had raised his landed posses- sions to 360 acres and on Oct. 7, 1894, the date of his death, he still owned the original 120 acres on which no mortgage nor transfer ever had been made. Surviving were his widow and G. M., Paul, and F. C. Reis of Sublette, and Carolina Schumacher, of Carroll, Towa : Lizzie Walz and Mary Reis of Perham, Minnesota, and P. H. of Joplin, Montana.
I have mentioned the name of Bartholomai Theiss. This good old soldier came with his family, consisting of four sons and two daughters, John, JJacob, Godfrey, George, Margaret and Catherine, to Lee county, May 5th, in the year 1846, and located in Sublette. Mr. Theiss possessed great will power, courage and the endurance of the man who always has lived properly. For many years he served under Napoleon Bonaparte in the latter's campaigns in Italy, Prussia, Austria and Russia. He had won such distinction that he was made one of the great Napoleon's bodyguard. Mr. Theiss never tired of repeating his experiences during the great retreat from Russia, which was so fearful and so disastrous. He has the distinction of being the only soklier under Napoleon who lies buried in Lee county, and it is doubtful if there is another in the limits of the State of Illinois.
In the early '50s, the members of the Theiss family built the first Catholic church in Sublette township, known ever since as the Perkins Grove Catholic Church, or as St. Mary's Church. The old church still stands as well as the cemetery in which Mr. Theiss was buried on his death. Both the church and the cemetery are kept beautifully to this very day by the descendants of the original Theiss.
Bartholomai Theiss died Sept. 16, 1861, full of years; rich in lands and safely and securely lodged in the affections of his neigh- bors and family. On his monument there have been inscribed appropriate references to his years of experience as a soldier in
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Europe and some of the many battles he engaged in have been men- tioned. This notable grave should be marked and kept forever green in the memory of the people of Lee county, especially the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Three of his sons have passed away and were laid to rest in the Theiss cemetery. They are: John, who died Jan. 9, 1899; JJacob, who died Sept. 20, 1893: Godfrey, who died in 1904, and one daugh- ter, Mrs. Mathias Reis, who died Oct. 14, 1897. George, the other son, now the oldest settler in Sublette, still lives in the enjoyment of peace and plenty.
George Hoffman and his family, consisting of his wife and three sons and two daughters, came to Sublette in the summer of 1845. They too were old friends of JJacob Betz and they settled near Perkins Grove. Henry, the oldest son, married, and by con- sistent work and economy he accumulated 600 acres of as good land as there is in Lee county. The father, George Hoffman, died in 1909, leaving surviving him his widow and seven sons and three daughters. He was a republican in politics.
Just as the Germans settled other parts of the county, so the Sublette Germans continued coming and settling and raising up families and these included the Malachs, the Laners, the Wolfs, the Stengers, the Dinges's, the Haubs, the Stephenitch's, the Bet- tendorfs, the Biebers, the Letls, the Kochlers and so many others, all so industrious, faithful, honest, and now all so rich. The big farms of the fathers, under the management of the sons and grand- sons have increased in size and value until the Germans of Sublette township are the richest people in Lee county. No piece of land in Sublette township needs to be advertised. The moment it is known that a piece of land can be bought, a purchaser appears on the scene with the ready money to buy it. Not so very long ago by reason of death, one piece had to be sold to close up the estate. There were no children. It sold for $300 per acre and the buyer stood ready to bid higher had it become necessary.
George Bieber landed in Sublette township in the summer of 1852. He was a shoemaker by trade and worked at his trade until the year 1858 when he returned to Germany to be married. He returned with his wife and bought a lot in the village of Sublette and built a house thereon, one room of which he used as his shoe shop.
One day a land agent came into his shop while he was working on a pair of boots; an agent from the land department of the Illinois Central railroad. This agent succeeded in interesting him
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in a piece of land, about seventy acres, which a little later he bought for $14 per acre, payable yearly.
The next year he had it broken and rented it for one-third of the crop. Carefully conserving every cent, he soon had it paid for and in time he added a quarter section near Odebolt, Iowa, to his possessions. This he sold and with it bought 130 more acres in Sublette township. At the time of his death, July 3, 1894, he still owned the 200 acres which was worth a fortune. So it was with those settlers. They knew what the great possibilities of this country were and to the last one they put their moneys into lands.
Two sons and one daughter were born to Mr. Bieber, George and Paul, both of whom live still in Sublette village. They buy grain and sell coal and Inmber and do an enormous business. Like the father they have put large sums into Western lands and they are very rich. The daughter is Mrs. Kate Leffelman, also of Sub- lette village.
Paul Lindstrom, another of the old time settlers came along with Bartholomai Theiss. His was quite a romantic career. The ocean journey of Mr. Theiss consumed forty-five days, during which ample time was afforded the passengers to get well acquainted. Paul Lindstrom was a sailor on that sailing vessel, and, attracted to Miss Margaret Theiss, he lost no time in making her acquaintance. Before the voyage had been concluded, Mr. Theiss had consented to the marriage and Paul came west with the family and later was married to Miss Theiss.
Mr. Lindstrom was a splendid carpenter. He built the Bar- tholomai Theiss house, which gave him a tremendous reputation, and immediately he had more demands for his services than he could fill. It was he who built the Catholic church at Perkins Grove, the interior finish of which always has been made so interesting. All the beautiful carving about the finish, particularly the altar, was done by him with an ordinary pocket knife.
He built the first hotel in Sublette and very soon he and his good wife had the best known tavern between Chicago and the Missis- sippi river. In the management of that hotel they were very successful and made money rapidly.
When the Cripple Creek discoveries agitated the country and the stories of the fabulous sums to be made with the pick reached here, Mr. Lindstrom determined to seek his fortune there. Accord- ingly he joined a party and bought a claim in the Cripple Creek country.
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The Indians bothered them more or less, but the party was so amply equipped to meet them, the Indians soon retired and troubled them no more. One afternoon when Mr. Lindstrom was doing picket duty, he noticed unusual wavings of the grass some distance away. He raised his rifle and fired and an Indian jumped up and fell dead. That was his final experience with the Indians.
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