USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 41
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Mr. Lindstrom sold his claim, built a brewery in Georgetown and with it a ranch, and now he is one of the wealthy men of the State of Colorado.
In a general way the Sublette Germans are democrats. They largely dominate the commercial interests of Sublette. In fact, I may say that with the exception of Mr. J. J. Barton, the post- master, son of the old settler, Jacob B. Barton, all the business men of Sublette are Germans.
The Bettendorf brothers operate one of the two grain ware- houses and do an enormous grain trade. Close to seven hundred thousand dollars has been paid out in the little village of Sublette in one year for grain. All of this business goes over the counters of the Exchange Bank of Sublette, so that one may infer readily that the bank is an exceedingly prosperous one.
While George Laner was in the grocery trade there, his sales were enormous and he amassed a fortune. Paul Stephenitch, in hardware and agricultural implements, does a famous business.
Dr. B. H. S. Angear, of Sublette, next to Dr. A. W. Chandler, of Compton, is a pioneer in providing for his patients a hospital. Dr. Angear's, is engineered entirely by his own private means and is a marvel. It is justly the pride of the countryside. Provided with the very latest appliances this hospital cares for the com- forts of its patients in a manner which has evoked astonishment from visiting physicians from abroad.
Doctor Angear is a physician of great ability and his faith in Sublette, by providing his hospital with every scientific appliance. has not been misconceived. Two trained nurses are in constant attendance. The operating room is a model. This hospital attracts patients from all points of the country.
Every one of those old Germans was a good Christian man or woman. During life they gave generously to their beloved church and in death rich gifts have been left it.
The Catholic church of Sublette, by all odds, is the most beau- tiful and the most costly in the county and but very few in the large cities are at all comparable to it. The cost has been something like sixty thousand dollars. It was built five years ago.
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The magnificent pipe organ cost $1,800. The raised pulpit has built over it a sounding board which so controls the voice that every word is heard easily in every part of the large room.
Not long ago when Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Michels realized they must soon die, it was the wish of each that their large property should go to the survivor during life, after which they wished to give it to the church. Mr. Michels died first and Mrs. Michels, to whom the property was willed, enjoyed it during her life. Just how to fix it she did not know, so she consulted her friend and counselor and the friend and counselor of her late husband, and appointing him executor of her will, she gave him absolute author- ity to spend the property as he, JJoseph Bettendorf, thought best. With beautiful fidelity, Mr. Bettendorf carried out the intention of the testatrix. In Germany he bought the beautiful stained glass windows of the church. Those windows are burnt colors; eighteen months were consumed in the task. When they arrived in this country, the Government collector sent a deputy out to Sublette to see that they were used for no other purpose than for church win- dows. A Milwaukee firm came down and set them.
At a cost of $1,800 Mr. Bettendorf installed the beautiful altar. He also purchased the rare vestments which the church now owns, and by the time he had executed his trust, he had spent between seven and eight thousand dollars.
There still lacked one item ; only one, and that was a chime of bells. So in order to complete the intention of the father and Mrs. Michels, Charles E. Bettendorf, son of Joseph Bettendorf, bought a beautiful chime of bells, and last summer Bishop Muldoon christ- ened the bells.
Beautiful homes and surroundings those Germans built. They raised families of patriotic, law-abiding citizens, some of the best in the world, and all over the township the influence of the fathers is felt by the children and grandchildren.
The first postoffice established was that of Broomfield, main- tained at the house of Daniel Baird. This was about the year 1840.
In the year 1841 O. Bryant burned a kiln of brick and like his Maytown neighbor, he succeeded.
Just over the line in Maytown, taverns were kept by men named Richardson, Daniel Baird, Thomas Tourtillott and another named Morrison.
The only Indians ever known to Sublette people were the Shab- bona Pottawatomies, who used to ride to and from the swamp near Walnut Grove along the Chicago-Princeton road.
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Greene's mill at Dayton, on the Fox river, for a long while was the milling market for the settlers.
Some little time after Lee county was set off, Maytown and the west half of Sublette was known as Bureau precinct and the polls were held at the house of Daniel Baird. The east half of the town- ship was incorporated with Brooklyn township.
In 1849 the county was divided into townships instead of pre- cinets, and this township was named Hamo. The railroad named the village Sublette. In order to secure harmony, and to get the name of the township changed to Sublette, a petition was sent to Hon. John V. Eustace, who during the winter of 1856-57, repro- sented this district in the Legislature, and the latter secured the desired change.
The first town meeting was held on the second Tuesday in April 1850. Alpheus Crawford was chosen moderator and Daniel Baird was made clerk of the meeting. A tax of 1216, cents was voted to be assessed on every hundred dollars of taxable property. At that election Daniel Baird was elected supervisor ; Henry Porter, clerk ; Whitlock T. Porter, assessor; Silas D. Reniff, collector; Daniel Pratt, overseer of the poor; Hiram Anderson and W. H. Hamlin, highway commissioners; Samuel Averill and Thomas S. Angier, constables, and Alpheus Crawford and Andrew Bertholf, justices of the peace.
CHAPTER XXXVI
VIOLA TOWNSHIP
One section of Viola at least may be classed as belonging to the first year of Chicago road history. I refer to that part cluster- ing around Melugin's Grove and Guthrie's Grove. In that little corner or rather spot in sections 32, 33 and 34, near Melugin's Grove and sections 26, 35 and 36 in which Guthrie's Grove was situ- ated; in the southern tier of sections, settlements were made very early ; contemporaneously with those just over the border to the south, in Brooklyn township. In fact most of the claims of the border settlers, both sides, lapped over. The prairie portion of the township. like all other prairie townships, did not appeal to the settler, and Viola further to the north did not settle until a much later period. When in 1851. Smith H. Johnson, father of the pres- ent commissioner of the Inlet Swamp Drainage District, B. F. Johnson went up into the prairie country of Viola to settle, he was nicknamed "Prairie Johnson," for his temerity and ever after- wards the name elunig to him. At first Mr. Johnson lived south of Little Melugin's Grove, so that he was an old settler in Viola neighborhood and may be classed as one of the very oldest.
William Guthrie probably was the first settler of Viola town- ship. In the chapter devoted to Brooklyn and Melugin's Grove, his name appears many times prominently. He settled at the grove which afterwards bore his name, in 1834. Mr. Guthrie like so many others who had been attracted to this county, had served in the Black Hawk war. In 1834, Mr. Guthrie made his claim and the next year he built his cabin. The grove was laid off into small lots of about one acre and sold as timber lots in the early day. Mr. Guthrie actually built the first house, a log affair, in this township. He out the logs from his grove and lived near by until his death. In later days, his grove became known as the Little Melugin's
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Grove. While John Gilmore actually lived just over the line into Brooklyn township, his original lands extended over into Viola, so that it would be unfair to class him as an old Viola settler.
William Lawton came in a little later, but when Walter Little came along still later, 1837, he sold his claim to the latter.
In the year 1837 there came to Viola township, one of the most remarkable men that ever lived in Lee county. He was a man under size, five foot six or perhaps seven, weight not over 145 pounds when I used to know him; very quiet; deep set blue and very mild eyes, yet a man of tremendous forcefulness. He was born in Ireland, in the County Antrim in 1815, October 15th. In the year 1835, after four years' residence further east, he settled in Viola township and lived there until the day of his death.
Landing here without a dollar, he accumulated land so rapidly and so perseveringly that he held for half his lifetime the largest body of land owned by any man in Lee county. There were 1,300 acres in his beautiful homestead in and around sections 25, 26 and 35. He was a stock-raiser. Rarely ever did he buy steers to feed. He preferred to raise his own steers. He put thorough- bred bulls at the head of his herd and very soon he owned the best grades in the county and Adrain steers in the markets needed no advertising. He was honored with every important office in his township. Though Viola was a long time settling, those people who took up their homes there achieved much and made great progress once they had got a good start.
Henry B. Cobb is another instance of what one man can do who possesses push and energy. I would class him as one of Lee county's biggest men. Exactly like Mr. Adrain, he farmed intel- ligently and accumulated large bodies of land. In the year 1852, he bought a land warrant of Elias B. Stiles and located it on the piece of land on which he lives to this very day. He had so much faith in Lee county land that he did not look at it before he laid his land warrant on it. It proved to be one of the rarest pieces of land upon which the sun ever shone.
Mr. Cobb did not settle upon this land at once. When later he did, John Hagardine, a brother-in-law, settled near by and so did one or two other relatives and friends from Connecticut, Mr. Cobb's native state. These relatives however did not like the country very well and so after wintering and summering it for a short while, they left. But with New England pertinacity and pluck, Mr. Cobb stuck and today, he probably owns more high priced land than any two or three men in Lee county combined.
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Mr. Cobb always has been a feeder. But unlike Mr. Adrain, he has bought feeders and fed them the product of his rich lands. He uses the same feed lot today he has used for something like sixty years and today you will see in that lot some of the shapeliest steers the butcher would care to see.
The old house, modest, like the houses of all the old pioneers were, stands today a little to the east of Mr. Cobb's present beauti- ful homestead. In that little home, he and Mrs. Cobb built up this splendid fortime, and unless misfortune befall it, the little home will stand many years more. When Mr. Cobb entered this land in section 13, he did not have the means to till it and so he went down into Bureau county, near La Moille and did team work ; also worked for a Mr. Edwards in a nursery until by and by he felt he had ac- cumulated enough to carry him over the period of waiting for a crop. His wages under Edwards were thirteen dollars per month and board.
By reason of the large area of swamp land in the central and western parts of Viola, large herds of cattle frequented that section in the earlier days.
Among the other old time settlers and farmers were Richard Phillips, B. F. Johnson, William Tripp, Henry Bennett, a man named Winters, another named Baker and another named Bucholz.
Originally Viola was a part of Brooklyn township. On the sec- ond day of April, 1861. the voters of this township met at the house of Moses Van Campen and nominated Simeon Cole moderator and Abram Van Campen, clerk. With their election the business of organizing the township of Viola began. On a vote being taken, it was found that fifty-seven votes had been cast, the great major- ity being for Sammel L. Butler for supervisor; Simeon Cole, asses- sor: Samuel Vosburgh for town clerk: constable and collector, John Melngin ; justice of the peace, Henry Marsh ; commissioners of highways, William Holdren, Ralph E. Ford and Moses Van Campen; poor master, Evins Adrain; pound master. John Meluigin.
By the very reason of the herding of vast numbers of cattle by Robert M. Peile, this township had gone by the name of Stock- ton ; but when it came to giving it a legal name under the organiza- tion proceedings. Butler. Eldorado and Elba were proposed. At this meeting no name was given, however, and so the officers gave their bonds to the township of Stockton.
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On May 11, 1861, the highway commissioners of Brooklyn and Stockton met for the purpose of making the road along the com- mon township line. The name for the township must have been disenssed at that meeting because very soon thereafter the name Viola was given to it.
Willow creek is the only natural stream flowing in the town- ship and it empties into Inlet swamp country in section 16.
The greatest enterprise carried on in this township, of course, has been the drainage proceedings which should be read carefully. The Panama canal is regarded properly as the engineering fea- ture of history. But behind that enterprise, a great Nation with inexhaustible resources was furnishing the necessary funds. This great enterprise was carried on by a small portion of a small county and vet the section of the county which paid for it, per capita, paid far beyond the tax per capita paid for the canal.
Evins Adrain's wedding was the first to be performed in Viola township. He married a widow lady, Smith by name, whose maiden name was Marilla Goodale. The marriage of William Hopp and a Miss Smith was the next wedding and that of Truman Johnson to Miss Mary Melugin was the third.
Walter Little was the first adult person to die in this town- ship. The first child born in the township was William Lawton's which died in infancy.
Inasmuch as Meluigi's Grove furnished the churches and the schoolhouse of the early day for Viola, it is imnecessary to allude to the latter at least, except through the report on schools made by Prof. L. W. Miller. There was a little school, however, at Guthrie's Grove and the first teacher there was Moses Van Campen.
Viola has made a great number of very rich farmers. At this very moment there are dozens of retired farmers living in Dixon and Compton, made independently rich from Viola farms. About two years ago Mr. Cobb astonished the whole county by buying a large farm near his own for the sinn of $300 per acre, spot cash. When asked if he did not feel that he had got rather ahead of the times in paying that price, he took out his lead pencil and in no time at all he proved that he had made a bargain in his pur- chase at the price, the first time in the history of the county that $300 per aere had been paid for farm lands.
CHAPTER XXXVII
WILLOW CREEK TOWNSHIP
This township is closely associated to this very day with Wyo- ming, its neighbor on the south, and all the old traditions are treasured here because many of them applied originally to Willow Creek.
The name, Willow Creek, was taken from the creek of that name, and it in turn was so named from the great numbers of willows which grew originally along its banks.
This creek takes its source in section 5 of Wyoming township, crosses the line into section 32 of Willow Creek township, flows northerly through sections 29, 20, 21, 17, where it deflects north- westerly into 7 and then westerly it empties into Inlet swamp, in section 16, of Viola township.
This is a beautiful township of land. Quite unusual, it pos- sesses unrivaled scenic beauty and lands of unsurpassed fertility at the same time. Today it ranks as one of the richest towns in Illinois. So too it may boast with honest pride that there dwells within its limits one of the very first persons who came there in its trying pioneer days. His name is David Smith, and a nobler man and gentleman than David Smith is not to be found today. I am under many obligations to him. In all my researches, I have trou- bled many people with my inquiries. Some have been gentle and generous : others have been too mean and slovenly to answer gen- tlemanly letters and on personal requests have been found still worse. But Mr. Smith has gone out of his way to assist me in my Lee county inquiries and his information proved to be of inesti- mable value. He settled for me the much mooted Job Alcott ques- tion, and that of itself is of great importance to me.
Mr. Smith came to Willow Creek as a lad in 1837, and with his parents settled at one of the four beautiful groves of this town-
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ship, from whom it derived its name, Smith's Grove. Smith's Grove, located on sections 34 and 35, was the largest perhaps, of the four. John Smith, from Argyleshire, Scotland, educated for the ministry, reached Willow Creek in August, 1837, and bought from James Armour a claim in section 35. Armour had bought it from one Cameron, who squatted on it originally. A few logs had been cut and that was the extent of the improvements done on the claim when it came into the possession of Mr. John Smith. This claim included all of Dry Grove, a few scattering trees, so called because no creek ran near them.
John Smith was not the first settler of the township, but he was the first settler of that locality. The house, erected immediately, was the second built in the township. It was thatched with mowed grass and the house of David Smith stands today almost on that identical spot.
In December following, the family suffered a fearful calamity. Their house burned down and consumed all their clothing, bedding, money, and a very valuable library, the only private library of consequence in the State of Illinois. The fire caught in the roof. It was the first dwelling in the township to be consumed by fire.
With indomitable pluck and energy, characteristic of the pio- neer, especially the Scotch pioneer, another log house was erected a few rods east of the first.
Fortune dealt unkindly with this worthy family at the first; just as it did with so many other families away from old home ties ; surrounded by Indians; lonesome. About three weeks after settlement, John Smith, the second son died and he was laid to rest in the family burying ground. That was the first death and burial in the township. Robert and David, other sons lived and remained and grew to manhood on the old place. There John Smith died in 1860, and there David lives today. Robert moved to Dixon and there died.
When John Smith came to Lee county he brought with him the old all-iron plow, in the firm conviction that nothing but the Scotch plow could turn a furrow of virgin soil. But as against the wooden beam steel plow of Illinois, Mr. Smith concluded he would not care to compete and so he threw it away along with his mattress of thistles, which he thought was the only bed in which mortal man could find sound slumber.
How lovingly the Scotch regard the home! John Colvill, later of Paw Paw, came with the family from Scotland, and lived with them for some years at first.
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The other groves beside Smith's Grove are Allen's Grove and Twin Groves. Allen's is located on sections 35 and 36, Twin Groves on section 17.
In the autumn of 1836, one Peter Gonzolas, from Dutchess county, New York, said to have been a Frenchman, came and made a claim at Allen's Grove. Peter (Pierre) is'a French name; but Gonzolas, never. He may have been a Frenchman and probably was, but in tossing his name down the ages, it has become badly disfigured. He remained two or three years and then left; some say with the Indians. Before leaving, he sold his claim to Richard M. Allen, and that was the first farm in the township to receive improvements.
The grove took its name from Allen and if the speech of people and the written records are to be taken at par value, then that grove by any other name would smell much sweeter.
Allen lived in a log house and kept tavern. His grove was thickly grown up to hazel bushes and chaparral, making a safe retreat for the horse thieves and counterfeiters who were said to have rendezvoused there during his brief sojourn. Allen left. When he left is not known, because in all human probability he did not leave upon the order of his going but left at once and was succeeded by a man named Price. Allen, however, in 1839, was still here.
In 1844 Israel Shoudy came and bought Price's claim, and lived upon it for the most of his lifetime.
In 1839 Horatio G. Howlett, who had been living in Dixon for a couple of years, settled at Allen's Grove and he remained here the remainder of his life.
Howlett was just the man for the nascent little settlements. He, like Town, of Paw Paw, feared nothing. He was elected con- stable when Town was elected a justice of the peace, with the under- standing that never would either take fees for services in civil cases.
One day Justice Town sent Constable Howlett a warrant to serve on a man named Lovelin (or Loveland), charged with horse- stealing. As the most likely place to find a horse thief, he went to Allen's and was told the party wanted was plowing out in the field.
The stolen horse, in the stable, was tied and a companion was placed in charge of it, with instructions to take certain aim at Love- lin and fire, should he, Howlett, give the order. It was Howlett's expectation that he and Lovelin would return to the stable together.
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Howlett read the warrant and demanded that Lovelin go with him to Paw Paw. Lovelin refused. Undisturbed, Howlett then said he presumed Lovelin was armed while he was not; that Love- lin might do as he pleased about submitting ; but he, Howlett, pro- posed to take the horse and restore it to its owner. Lovelin fell into the trap and went to the stable to prevent the return of the horse, stating that only over his dead body could that horse pass. The instant the two men reached the stable, the guard darted into sight and drew a bead on Lovelin's heart. Howlett demanded a surrender and again instructed the guard to shoot when ordered.
Lovelin surrendered, Allen gave bail and the man was released. A bowie knife and two pistols were taken from him. Soon there- after he requited Allen's kindness in harboring him, by running away with the wife and a horse of his friend, Allen. With Allen's assistance he was caught; lodged in the Sycamore jail; he escaped ; lay in a stream of water until nearly dead; was retaken, and sent to the Galena jail.
One day while confined there, when the jailer's little son brought him his meal, he canght the boy in his arms, escaped, ran to the brow of a hill or cliff near by, and when the sheriff made for him, he held the child aloft between them and threatened to dash him to death below if not permitted to escape. Without a word of remonstrance he was permitted to go his way in peace. Later the fellow was lodged in jail in St. Louis, charged with horse stealing.
Judges Caton and Drummond, who traveled the trail through Allen's Grove from Ottawa to the hunting grounds of Wisconsin, told Mr. Howlett of the Galena incident.
This was the first arrest made in Lee county for horse stealing.
Speaking of this trail-a state road was laid subsequently, along that trail from Ottawa to Rockford, and for southeastern travel it was used very largely. It has been said that many times twenty and thirty teams in procession passed Allen's Grove.
Twin Groves were named first, Moore's, from William Moore, the earliest settler there, who began his improvements in 1837 at the more southerly grove.
James Thompson and Levi Lathrop came together as early as 1842, and together they bought Moore's claim, on which the latter had thirty acres of plowing. For the timber claim, Moore was paid $50, the northwest quarter of southeast quarter of section 17. A short while afterwards Thompson bought out Lathrop's interest, and there Mr. Thompson remained the remainder of his days.
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Robert Blair, brother-in-law to Mrs. Thompson. came at the same time from Melngin's Grove and bought a claim north of the grove, but he never took title from the Goverment. About 1850 he returned to Melugin's Grove. In 1881, he died at the house of Mrs. Thompson. The first birth at Twin Groves was that of a son to Mr. Blair, named Robert. This was in 1846.
Mr. Thompson's first house was no more nor less than a pen built with rails and covered with straw. A log cabin, not much better than the pen, followed.
For quite a while after this there was a lull in the advent of settlers. George Wise and Isaac Gardner, brothers-in-law, started improvements at the north grove, but very soon sold to Mark R. Averill, and left the country ; Wise went to California and Gardner to Florida. Neither did Averill remain long. In the winter of 1853-54, he moved to Paw Paw, after selling his land to Jacob B. Fisher in the fall of 1853.
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