History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 31

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910

USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. > Part 31

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James Doan set up a plow factory, but after a year sold to Freder- iek Bainter; and in 1846 another was started by the Shaws and Churches. In 1851 H. E. Badger entered into partnership with Bainter, but they soon dissolved, and the next year the manufacture was continued by Henry and Chester Badger, while Bainter carried on another shop. In 1854 James Dexter built a saw-mill. David Croeker and David Searles, partners, and Warren Badger were storekeepers not before mentioned. Besides the "Binghamton," there was another place of public entertainment known as the "Reed House." The town had two custom blacksmiths, a shoemaker, one wagon shop and a carding machine. After the mail and stage route was changed and the postoffice removed from Shelburn to Binghamton in 1850 this became a brisk place of trade and manufacture, whose crowded hotels were an index of the great travel by this route.

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

About 1840 a Methodist class was organized in this settlement, and among the original members were Joseph Doan, Curtis Bridgman, Andrew Bainter, and their wives, and Aunt Betsy Doan. Frederick Bainter, Joseph Lewis, Henry E. Badger and their wives were leading members. This society was in the Lee Center circuit, and in 1851 they erected a house of worship in this town. When Amboy sprang into existence H. E. Badger purchased the building, and another was reared in the rising city. That was used a few years and then sold to the district for a school-house.

Binghamton is situated a mile east of Amboy, and certainly it was not expected that she would never languish like all old-time towns which the modern system of travel has failed to rescue from decay, but nevertheless she has carried herself proudly in her desolation. The only business interest of which she is not now bereft is the plow fac- tory of W. I. Fish, if we except the Amboy Drain Tile and Brick Works erected the present season by Wightwick & Stone less than half a mile north of the place. These works represent a growing and im- portant industry, which is destined to exercise an influence in the de- velopment of wealth beyond all calculation. The main building is 50×100 feet, two stories high, and the facilities for burning include four of Tiffany's patent square, down-draft kilns, all under one roof, so arranged as to utilize the waste heat of the kiln while cooling in firing the next. Tiffany's Centennial Tiffany Brick and Tile Machine is the one used for moulding, and this is propelled by a Siamese Twins Du- plex engine of twenty-horse power. The fixtures are all of the latest pattern, and comprise some very recent novel and valuable improve- ments. Messrs. Wightwick & Stone intend to operate the year round by means of steam drying in winter, which will give their factory a capacity of 2,000,000 tiles annually. Additions to their works are to be made in the near future.

The first interment in the cemetery at this town was Patience, wife of A. B. Searles, who died December 19, 1846. The place was used as a common burial lot until March 1856, when the Binghamton Cemetery Association was formed, and a piece of land bought from Mr. Searles and put under fence. Three soldiers of the late war are buried here: Otis Bridgman, who enlisted at Amboy, May 1861, in Co. C, 13th Ill. Vols., served three years, and died of disease contracted in the service; John Bainter, whose enlistment was the same in all respects, was mustered out January 15, 1864, and died from the same cause March 24; and John Lewis, who enlisted in Co. G, 39th Ill. Vols. ( Yates' phalanx), at Amboy, in August 1861, served on the Peninsula campaign, was discharged, and died November 22, 1864, of disease contracted in the army.

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AMBOY TOWNSHIP.

ROCKY FORD AND SHELBURN.

This place was one of the earliest settled in the township, and for many years was the central point of interest. The ford has made it a crossing-place from time immemorial. The Indian trail from Council Bluffs to Chicago crossed here ; and in the time of the Black Hawk war the command under Maj. Stillman forded the stream at this point on their way to gather laurels at Stillman's Run. Timothy Perkins is generally credited with having been the first permanent settler. In company with Horace Bowen he erected a saw-mill which passed suc- cessively into the hands of Lee, Mason, Van Norman, and Dutcher. Van Norman was a relic of the Patriot war in Canada (1836-8), where he suffered imprisonment, but escaping in the summer of 1837 reached Dixon. He took a contract of grading on the old Central railroad at this point, which brought him here as a resident. The Peru and Galena road, which passed this place, was a stage route some years, and after the completion of the canal was a highway of heavy traffic and travel. In 1848 Frederick Dutcher bought the property from Daniel Mason and Horace Stump, and the next year platted the village of Shelburn, making the creek divide it through the center. Imme- diately on laying out the place he crected a small distillery on the south bank, and in 1853 added a store. He was followed a year after- ward by Jacob Doan, who put up another store. A few houses were built, and eventually the town came to be one where a very large busi- ness was transacted. The large flouring-mill and distillery combined, whose erection was begun in 1856 by the Shelburn Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Dutcher was president, was the main feature which kept the place alive. The structure was built of stone, the mill proper being 60×60 feet, four stories high, and the distillery 40×140, two and one-half stories. The dam was of masonry, and the cost of the whole property $65,000. The late Col. Wyman was a prominent member of this company. In 1859 an explosion threw down part of the south wall of the building, and projected the boiler thirty rods, landing it south of the creek. John Bentley, the engineer, was seriously injured, and the loss was $4,000. About ten years after- ward the building was destroyed by fire.

Postal facilities were obtained after a few years, but at first the nearest post-office was at Dixon. Asa B. Searles was the first postmas- ter in this township, and was appointed by Amos Kendall about 1840. The office was kept at his house. His second incumbency was under Polk at the time he was keeping store at Binghamton. He resigned, and was succeeded by Warren Badger. The first north-and-south route of travel through this section was from Galena to Peoria, via Dixon, but it was at 'length changed to Peru. In 1842 it became a

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

mail-route, and the carrier, a Dutchman, made the trip on horseback every week without failure during the year, stopping at John Hook's Monday nights as he went north, and Friday nights as he went south. The next year Frink & Walker put on a line of stages and carried the mail, and about two years after that Andruss & Dixon started an oppo- sition line. The Shelburn post-office was established, with Mr. Dutcher as postmaster, but in the rivalry between this place and Binghamton the latter procured the removal of the office, and the diversion of the stage-route to that point. This was too mortifying to be endured, and about as soon as it could be done the office was renewed under the name of Equator. By the removal of buildings and loss by fire and flood Shelburn has nearly disappeared.

CITY OF AMBOY.

This embowered little city, second in size in Lee county, contain- ing nearly 2,500 inhabitants, is situated in the Green River valley at the intersection of the Illinois Central and the Rock River branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad, and is overlooked from north and south by beautiful stretches of country which gradually rise to elevations of almost seventy feet. The first beginnings on the site of this place were made in 1838 by John Sawyer, who built a cabin on the bank of the creek ; and Cyrus Davis, who erected another just in front of where the Baptist church stands on Mason street. Davis built the first frame house, which was begun in the fall of 1845, and finished the next spring. This stood in the street when the town was platted, but was moved to the east side where it is still used as a dwelling. Sawyer sold his claim to Joseph Farwell and Joseph B. Appleton. Farwell came in 1841 and built where Lucius Clark's resi- dence stands on the corner of Main street and Adams avenue, and his farm was the N.E. ¿ Sec. 22. Appleton settled here permanently in 1844, but first came as an unmarried man two or three years prior to that date. The homestead is situated in the west part of the town. He built the second frame house. Josiah M. Davis and his father Joel, who settled here about 1848, lived close to the western limits.

This city is the offspring of the Central railroad. In the early summer of 1851 the surveying parties under the chief engineer, Ros- well B. Mason, took their several stations on the line and immediately began preliminary operations. T. B. Blackstone, whose name has been given to one of the streets in the original town, had charge of the squad employed between Dixon and Bloomington. In December 1852 K. F. Booth, for several years afterward a resident of Amboy, came to this place at the head of a small party whose business was to direct the work on this part of the route. A company, distinct from

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AMBOY TOWNSHIP.

the Illinois Central Railroad Company, but composed in part, if not wholly, of stockholders in the latter, purchased and owned the land for the village plats along the road. They bought the Lay farm for a depot and station two miles above here in the direction of Dixon, which was subsequently sold to a conductor named Cole. They gave out word that the company would erect machine shops at that point ; a few loads of stone were hauled there, and the place named Kepatau. If there was ever any real intention of making a station and building shops there it was of very brief duration. H. B. Judkins came down one day, and securing the company of a certain influential citizen, went to Farwell, and pretending to be a returned Californian, said he want- ed to buy a stock-farm, and a bargain was forthwith made for the " Farwell slough farm," as old settlers had named it, for $13 per acre. John B. Wyman, assistant superintendent of the road, hastened to buy out Cyrus Davis, and then Farwell was given to understand that if he had any wish to secure himself he should lose no time in doing it, and he accordingly purchased the farm from his son-in-law, Curtis Bridgman. The land company made a deed of trust to Messrs. Ketchum and Gray ; and Col. Mason, who was superintendent as well as chief engineer of road, acted as their attorney.

In June, 1853, Michael Egan was sent to this place to commence the mason work on the station buildings, and in the autumn of the same year D. S. Clark was put in charge of the carpenter work. Some time during the season Mr. Booth prepared the plans for the machine shops, and Mr. Egan laid the foundations and pushed the construction with his characteristic energy throughout the following winter. In the spring the walls of the passenger house were up and the building inclosed ; in course of the summer both that and the freight house were completed, and before winter the machine shops were in a forward state of progress. Most of the other shops which the company now have were built in the following year, 1855.

The year 1854 was the natal year of Amboy. In January or Feb- rnary a Frenchman by the name of Meyer, under the directions of Col. Mason, came and laid out the town, completing his survey March 24. On July 26 the first bonds for deeds were executed. John L. Skinner was the first purchaser of lots. He paid $600 for the northeast corner lot on Main street and East avenue, now occupied by the Badger building. On this he began the erection of the Orient House in the fall of 1854; in September, 1855, it was completed, and opened to the public by the Lee brothers, who were proprietors one year under lease. Charles W. Bell, who had been grading on the road nearly a year, in August, 1853, came here with his family and opened a boarding-house for rail- road men in a mammoth, barn-like shanty belonging to the company,

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

and which had been erected near the spot where the Baptist church stands. On January 21 this caught fire and burned down, but was immediately rebuilt by the company. When Mr. Bell settled in the place Cyrus Davis had moved away ; Appleton was on the homestead ; Farwell was about to move, or had just moved to his new purchase ; Alvan H. Thompson was living at his old home where Superintendent Jacobs resides; and a transient family occupied the Davis dwelling. These comprised the population of Amboy, which, by the way, was not yet surveyed and christened, except some railroad employés who could not at that time be regarded as settlers. Isaac Edwards, who graded seven miles of the railroad, settled temporarily south of the Inlet this year.

By the following spring K. F. Booth, D. S. Clark, and Michael Egan were occupying residences with their families; and from this time the place made rapid growth after the nervous fashion of western towns. The "live Yankees " began to pour in, and their partiality for the location at once decided the complexion of society. All availa- ble room was speedily secured; every shingle covered a boarder, and the demand for lodgings was as unfortunate as Oliver Twist's cry for " more." The science of storing away was grasped and learned, and every house was crammed to its utmost capacity from ground to garret. Boxes and trunks were piled one above another against the walls to make room to spread the tables for meals, and for the beds upon the floors at night. This was nearing first principles, still these people found more pleasures than hardships, for virtuous freedom may always be enjoyed, and never so much as when those who voluntarily come together with a common purpose have more wants than privileges to divide. "Roughing it," never unmixed with a certain excitement, had its fascinations, and was encountered with a relish. Busy thoughts and hands and light hearts brought health and zest to every individual, and when people came together, as they often sought and had occasion to do, joy and mirth were spontaneons and unconfined. Amusements were not wanting; and though rude and simple, they served the goodly end of recreation, and kept men from base employments. Dancing, the favorite, was indulged with the fondness of early days. After supper was over and dusk had come, the room was cleared of chairs and tables by piling them up out of doors, and from that time till morning was nigh the cheerful voices of the violin and flute were blended in the pleasing strains of the Fisher's Hornpipe, the Arkansaw Traveler, and other familiar pieces; and Virginia reels and other figures were executed by never wearying feet. The already quickened energies of the people took a new impulse in the whirl of labor and business into which everybody plunged with an absorbing ambition

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AMBOY TOWNSHIP.

for the fruits of industry and improved opportunities. Men came with their families, and failing to find lodgings, hastily put up rough shanties to guard them from the weather, until more durable buildings could be erected ; and as a matter of fact the earliest structures, though designed to be permanent, were raised in the briefest possible time, and were not of the most substantial character.

The original plat of the town was on the N.E. ¿ Sec. 22, the Far- well farm. Wyman's addition was next laid out on the S. W. ¿ Sec. 15, the Cyrus Davis farm, J. B. Wyman, H. C. Purple, and others, being the proprietors. Farwell surveyed a part of his land into lots, and Gilson & Ransom, of La Salle, bought an undivided half of Apple- ton's land and laid off Gilson's addition. A lively strife at once ensued among these rival interests. Wyman was selling residence property, and having a brisk trade. The land company was disposing of busi- ness lots on Main street and East avenue, and it seemed almost fated that the center of trade would be in that locality. The interest of the other parties lay in drawing the town, or an equal share of it, to the west side. To compass this end, in the spring of 1855 Gilson & Ransom erected the Exchange block, a large wooden structure divided into six or seven business compartments below, and a number of offices and dwelling-rooms above. This occupied lots Nos. 2, 3, and 4 in block 14, Gilson's addition. At the same time Farwell built the hall which bore his name, on lot 8, block 7, north side of Division street. No building associated with the early history of the town will call up such a variety of recollections as Farwell hall ; for it was at once public hall, polling place, school-house, and everybody's meeting-house. For a while the prospects and advantages were somewhat equalized, though there was no time when there was not an unequal rivalry.

Let us drop the growth of the business quarter long enough to notice the erection of the earliest private houses. The two first were built simultaneously in the summer of 1854, on the north side of Main street, east of Mason, by L. W. Borden and E. S. Reynolds. The latter moved into his in August. Dr. David Bainter built the third, but claims to have been the first to move into the town after it was platted. Mr. Reynolds makes the same claim also for himself. This was situated on the southeast corner of Jones and Division streets, and here Bainter & Co., oculists, aurists and Indian doctors, had their office on the lower floor, and their art gallery on the upper one. Fol- lowing these initial buildings others went up rapidly, the music of saws and planes and the clangor of hammers resounding on every street. The business prospects of the place were flattering. The rail- road works in progress contributed generously to this progress; and people crowded into the town to the overflowing of accommodations,

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

and as a consequence rents advanced exorbitantly, and persons seek- ing board were knocking at every door. By the next spring the inhabitants of the town were estimated at 1,000.

R. D. Peironett and Samuel Goldman were the first to start in what had the semblance of mercantile business. Peironett opened a little rough-board shop in the spring of 1854, in which he kept a small stock of common articles ; and Goldman, who had been peddling cloth- ing through the country since 1851, set up in trade on East avenue, somewhat later, in a shanty which a dozen men could pick up and carry away. He became a leading citizen, and acquired a large compe- tence; and in 1870 retired from active business and settled in Chicago, where he died a year ago. In the spring of the same year Josiah Little, in searching for a location, reached this place, and deciding to make it his home, proceeded to erect a store, the first which could be dignified with the name, on lot 8, block 3, original plat. The stone was brought from Lee Center and the lumber from Mendota. In October it was completed and filled with drugs, hardware and grocer- ies. Messrs. Wilcox & Wooster built a store the same fall on the ground now owned and occupied by L. Bourne, on East avenue. The lumber for this was hauled from Mendota. They traded in dry-goods and grocer- ies a year, when A. H. Wooster bought Wilcox's interest, and the new firm continued the business at the old stand another year. Meantime they had purchased the lot on the east corner of Main and Jones streets, at present covered by the Merrifield building, and erected a store. The autumn of 1854 found E. & J. Little, and the Union store which had been moved from Binghamton, and was conducted by J. H. Preston, and Cornelius Allen, harness-maker, on the north side of Main street, with Warriner & Beresford, lumber merchants, on the south side. Wilcox & Wooster, Samuel Goldman, and Paul Cullen, the latter keeping groceries and liquors, were in trade on East avenue. Between this time and the spring of 1856 the following firms and persons were iden- tified with the development of business: Guybort & Hynes, Cyrus Bridgman & Bro., Walton & Kizer, Rosenbaum & Walton, and Car- son & Pirie, who began with groceries in the store built by Wilcox & Wooster, and afterward extended their business to dry-goods in an adjoining house, and carried on a large and successful cash business till 1865, when they removed to Chicago and engaged in the wholesale trade. G. H. McFatrich built a business house in the spring of 1855 on Main street, on the present site of Wheat & Gridley's store. A. & C. D. Vanghan, furniture dealers and undertakers, set up on Mason street, nearly opposite the present Methodist church. J. D. Waddell, furniture and undertaking, built two storerooms on the south side of Main street. On August 25, 1860, while hunting, he was accidentally

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shot and killed. R. H. Mellen went to manufacturing lumber in the spring of 1855. James Boyd started in lumber and grain, and after figuring largely for a short time, moved away. C. D. Sears & Co. opened a lumber yard and built a planing-mill and sash and door fac- tory. G. H. Ambrose and Francis Little, grain dealers at first, after- ward started a private bank. Henry Keeling, from New Orleans, opened a hardware store in company with Jolin Scolly. He has been a prominent business man and citizen, and in 1865 built Keeling's block on East avenue. Isaac Edwards began, and has since carried on, the livery business. Briggs & Cushing sold drugs and groceries. C. M. Butler and Robert Merrigold formed a copartnership in lumber and grain. T. J. King, grocer; Badger Bros., N. S. Chase, first in cloth- ing, afterward hardware; Philip Flach, barber; Jacob Kline, baker; Abram Jackson, baker and confectioner ; Ashford & Cook and George Keefer, butchers; and Mrs. W. B. Andruss, artist, who occupied rooms in the Exchange block. No. 33, Vol. I, of the "Lee County Times," published February 7, 1856, the earliest paper on file in the " Amboy Journal " office, contains advertisements of business men and others not already mentioned, as follows: Clark & Watson, clothing; Wm. B. Stuart, attorney-at-law, city auctioneer and land agent; W. E. Ives, attorney ; H. M. Snow, Doane & Quinn, incat market; W. E. Ives, assignee of Peironett & Reed ; W. H. Allen, music store; E. W. Mc- Lean, general store; Mead & Hall; dissolution notice of J. W. D. Blake & Co .; Alexander Martin ; G. R. Mckinney, general merchan- dise ; Drs. T. P. Sleeper and J. A. Jackson ; James Boyd, land agent ; Illinois Central railroad time table, James C. Clark, superintendent ; Mrs. Gosden, milliner; A. S. Pierce, boots and shoes ; H. F. & E. D. Walker, hardware; James C. Wheat, carpenter and joiner; Gilson & Ransom, land agents; J. Carroll, tailor; Thomas Adamson, jeweler ; . Illinois Central house, J. B. Wyman, proprietor; Egan & Booth, grocers ; Alex. Zubrod, grocer; A. E. Wilcox, grain ; J. H. Wisner, livery ; W. H. Brackett & Co., blacksmiths; P. Vogt, shoemaker ; Reed & Pond, hides and grain ; and Amboy Lodge, No. 179, I.O.O.F. Among a large number of mechanics, many of whom were in the em- ploy of the Central railroad company, we may mention in addition the following: Lucius Clarke, Nicholas Koontz, and Harvey and Levi Ives, carpenters ; George W. Mingle, shoemaker; and a man named Hines, blacksmith. Henry Chapin erected, in the fall of 1855, the first blacksmith shop east of the railroad, and the second one in the town. Considerable of the business was on the west side, and Ex- change block was for some time all occupied. But Gilson died early, before realizing a fruition of his plans; the efforts on behalf of that part of the town grew feebler; and seeing the drift of trade setting

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

steadily and more strongly in the other direction, the dealers one by one deserted that quarter, like rats abandoning a sinking craft. A part of the now solitary building was torn down, and the remainder was leveled by fire. Amboy grew rapidly through 1856, and ınain- tained a steady increase until the breaking out of the war. In speak- ing of the progress of the town, the " Times," in its issue of July 31, 1856, sums up its development thus: "We have now between 2,000 and 3,000 inhabitants, two churches and another in process of con- struction, about thirty stores and groceries, a steam planing-mill and sash factory, three hotels, two livery stables, and in fact establishments of almost every variety." The estimate of population is too indeter- minate to be of much value now, though it served well enough the purposes of local pride at that time; and " groceries " includes several drinking shops, whose combined effect has been an ample harvest of crime and woe in accidents, disasters and tragedies.

David Bainter was the first doctor to locate in the new town. Dr. Harmon Wasson lived just beyond the limits. J. A. Jackson came in the autumn of 1854. T. P. Sleeper, who was mostly employed in dentistry, arrived in 1855. Vaughan, a young physician, and brother to C. D. Vaughan, and A. P. Chase the next year; and McFatrich still later. The healing art is at present represented by Drs. Ryon, Felker, Travers, Wilcox, Manning and Saguin. Dr. George Deming practices dentistry.

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History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 31

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill Number of Pages: 910

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910