History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 65

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 65

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

tions which have arisen as to priority of residence. And while due credit is awarded to those who were on the ground before him, the higher praise must be given to David A. Town, as the first white set- tler around this grove who stuck where he located claims. He was a native of Vermont, emigrated to Marion county, Ohio, and thence to Paw Paw Grove in the fall of 1834. He is described, by one of his neighbors who kept tavern in Dixon, as a man of determined will, a leader in local affairs, capable and square in business. "I have known him to refuse to sell seed grain for a high price, saying: 'you can buy it elsewhere; but I have poor neighbors who cannot get money to buy. I shall give the seed to them.'" His nephew, Hosea R. Town, gives below very interesting reminiscences in this connec- tion : " Uncle David A. Town was the first white man who settled at Paw Paw Grove. He built his first house on the southeast side of the grove, just west of the farm now owned by Pierpont Edwards. It was a log house, 16 × 18 feet, with a door in the east side, one six-lighted window in the west side, and a big fireplace and chimney in the north end. This chimney was built outside of the house, so as to give more room inside. It was made of sticks split out with the fro, and laid cob-fashion, and then plastered inside and out with mud made from common clay. The floor of the house was made from boards that were split from logs cut the length we wanted, and then hewed with a broad-axe. The roof was made of shakes split out with the fro about three feet long, and four or five inches wide, and then laid double onto poles placed lengthwise of the house to hold them up, and then another pole laid on to hold them down, and then another layer of shakes with the butts to this pole, and then another pole to hold them down, and so on till the roof was completed." O. P. Johnson, now of Brooklyn, who rived the shingles, says this house was built by himself and three others in a day and a half, in November 1834. Hosea R. Town con- tinues : "David A. Town made a claim here, and broke and fenced twenty acres, and in the fall sowed ten of it with winter wheat. He then bought half of the 'Ogee section,' owned by Mrs. Job Alcott, a half-breed French and Indian woman, for $1,000 in silver. He then left here and went to the north end of the grove, and built his second house, which John Patrick now owns. When my father got here, in December 1835, he took the first house and south half of that claim." Those who knew this brave pioneer most intimately say of him : "David A. Town was a square man, a true friend, but a bad enemy." Says one: "I have known men to go to him with the money to buy seed grain, and offer a high price, yet he would refuse to sell it, saying, 'You are able to buy elsewhere; I have needy neighbors to whom I must give this.'"

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The following picturesque description of the man is by Andrew Breese : " David A. Town was a remarkable man, known all over this country. Smart, energetic, jolly, drank a little when away from home, but not so much as not to know what he was about ; square man ; wanted to rule; wanted others to come to him for advice; very resolute, large size, strong, rough man, cock of the walk; as long as he lived was for Paw Paw."

There came with David A. Town, in 1834, his wife and four chil- dren. The latter were named George, Martha, David A., jr., and Sarah. The father was wont to say of his good wife: "With all my faults, Betsey never gave me a cross word." Going with Aunt Roxy horseback, both on one horse, to make a visit, the former lady pru- dently carried her shoes in her hand, not wearing any, but meaning to put them on just before the end of the journey. Being thrown off into a slough, holding up her new shoes she congratulated herself: "There, I have saved my shoes." With such an example, economy became a cardinal virtue in the community. Mrs. Town was loved and respected by all who knew her.

A stranger having inquired of David A. Town one day when meet- ing him for the direction to a certain place, and then taking an oppo- site course, Town's suspicions were aroused. Pursuing the stranger on horseback, he overtook him, drew out of him the confession that he was a counterfeiter, discovered and captured his dies, and the man was sent to the penitentiary. What Deacon Hallock said afterward of the daring and quick wit of two of the leading citizens was true also of other good men here. "Town and Bryant were a terror to horse thieves and counterfeiters." The former was an early justice of the peace, and his appointees, like himself, were incarnations of the terror of the law. Later, when the township was organized, he was its first supervisor, serving two terms. He died in 1861. He and his wife were buried in the graveyard half a mile south of Paw Paw. Only two of his children are now living, David A., jr., a broker at Earlville, and Sarah, now Mrs. Terry, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The settlement begun by Town was largely augmented the same fall by the arrival of the Harrises, Butterfield, Ploss, and Wilcox. All these belonged to the same general family who emigrated from Michi- gan in one company, and of whom the Rev. Benoni Harris, then past three score and ten, was the venerable head. This family, a little col- ony in numbers, consisted of eight grown-up children, besides Father Harris and his equally aged wife. The children were Benjamin and Benoni, Stephen and Joseph, Polly, Thankful, Amanda and Delilah. Six were married. Polly was the wife of Edward Butterfield, and these had a son, Solomon. The next two were married to John Ploss

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and John Wilcox. Next year Delilah was married, of which event more farther on.

Butterfield, while serving in the Black Hawk war, had seen this locality, and being delighted with its attractive features, resolved to make it his future home. Returning after the Indians had been van- quished, he had no difficulty in persuading his relations to emigrate. Benoni Harris, sr., was a Methodist preacher. Both himself and wife are buried in Ralph Atherton's garden, at the southeast corner of Paw Paw Grove. Hers was the first death at the grove. The dwelling occupied the first winter by these immigrants was a double log cabin erected on their arrival. Somewhat later a frame house, the first in all this region, was built by Harris. It may yet be seen, a few rods west of the original site, on James Ketcham's land. Having been sawed asunder, a part of it is used for a dwelling, and the rest for a corn-bin.

In the spring of 1835 Butterfield came up to the west end of the grove, made a claim on the S.E. ¿ of Sec. 10, and built a cabin near where Hendrick Roberts is living, in the outskirts of Paw Paw, but on the south side of the Chicago road. This embraced substantially that part of Paw Paw lying east of Flagg and North streets. One season was all he spent here before returning to the east end of the grove. This dwelling was an historical one, as the following facts show : It was the first house; it was on the first claim; it was the home of the first couple married in the township; it was the first store, and the first house to be burned.

It is a generally accepted tradition that David A. Town was the original permanent settler of Wyoming township. This belief shows how easily error becomes perpetuated. His claim to priority is limited to Paw Paw Grove, at the east end of which he settled, as already described. He spent the summer of 1835 at that point, where he fenced twenty acres, and that year sowed the land to fall wheat. Early the same year he claimed the S.W. ¿ of Sec. 11 in this township, and removed to it with his family, we feel safe in saying, not before the early autumn. While yet living on the first claim an attempt was made to jump the second, and a cabin was started; but Mr. Town, with his characteristic resolution, expelled the interloper by driving his team off the claim when he was at work. Butterfield sold his claim, on which was the "Big Spring," now covered by Wheeler's creamery, and which was then an object of value, for about $20, either to David or George Town, probably to the former, for whom the latter occupied it on his marriage and held it. The cabin was south of the road. In 1837 George Town built a hewed log house north of the road, but farther west, near Grummond's corner, and, changing his

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location, lived there till 1856, when he moved to Kansas, where he died in January 1870, leaving his family in good circumstances. His widow is yet living.

About the time that Butterfield was making the first beginning in the township, on the present site of Paw Paw village, John Ploss made a small improvement on the south side of the grove, and in like manner led the way to the settlement of south Paw Paw. He built his house in the woods, on the bank of the creek, some forty rods north of Deacon Hallock's, and fenced five acres of ground, but remained not later than fall, when he went back to Michigan. Eber St. John bought the claim. This man had some property, was inoffensive, and too forceless to keep the best company. In a little while he moved to Shabbona, where he mysteriously disappeared, and it was supposed that he had been murdered for his money. His claim embraced the larger part of South Paw Paw, and was purchased by Deacon Orlando Board- man.

Isaac or Asahel Balding was one of the first settlers in the town- ship, having arrived as early as 1835, and located on the Dixon and Chicago road, midway between the two Paw Paws, where he kept the first stage-house and tavern. Deacon Hallock's definition of the early tavern, that "it was a place where blacklegs congregated," has a veri- table illustration in the history of this one, as related by Hosea Town : " Balding sold out to William Rogers, he to Dick Allen, he to John Simms, who mortgaged the place for $400, to get his son John out of jail in Chicago for passing bogus money, and never redeemed it. All these, except Balding, were regular bandits. The stage stopped at this house as long as it ran by Paw Paw." Simms had the stand in 1840, and it was the only tavern then at the grove; but travelers, as was the custom, put up anywhere. Stages were put on this route, between Galena and the village of Chicago, in 1834.

Gillett came in 1835, and died the same season of cholera in Chi- cago. In December of this year came Russell Town, before alluded to, who resided on the old place, at the east end of the grove, eleven years, then removed to the William Strader place, two miles west of Paw Paw. He died in this township December 31, 1867. His widow, still living in Paw Paw, is the sole surviving representative of those having families and settling at the grove prior to 1837. They brought five children : Hosea, Harriet, David, Zerah, and Elizabeth, and four were subsequently born: Caroline, the first at the grove, April 21, 1836; Oscar, Ellen, and Eliza. Hosea, David, Caroline and Eliza have always been residents of Wyoming, and to the two former we owe acknowledgment for reliable pioneer information.

One Algar, settled at Four-Mile Grove, in this township, in 1835

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

or 1836. He died not many years after, and his grave, the first at this grove, is in the highway in front of George Yenerick's, where a tall cherry stump stands sentry over the hallowed spot.

In 1836 Job Alcott arrived and built a cabin equi-distant between the two Paw Paws; this and the Butterfield or George Town cabin, were the only ones on the south side of the Chicago road for many years. Alcott's was succeeded by the "Hollow House," noted for its dancing-hall and bar. About 1848 S. P. Rogers opened a country store in this building. Originally from Ohio, he had married, in Illi- nois, the Pottawatomie Indian woman Madaline, former wife of Joseph Ogee, a half-breed. She owned the Ogee reservation, which contained 640 acres, and was secured to her by the treaty of Prairie du Chien, July 29, 1829. About the first conveyances in this county pertained to this tract. David A. Town purchased the west half, as before stated, for $1,000. He got 170 rods in width for 160 (best half of bargain). Later, William Rogers bought the remainder.

The first plat of this section was made by Willard Hastings. It was never recorded, and by reason of this omission the land could not be sold for taxes, the collection of which was for a long time precarious and troublesome. After tedious but patient examination, William McMahan, county surveyor, discovered the witness trees, marked "O G," and in 1880 ran out the boundaries, platted the land, and recorded the plat. The Le Clair reservation, granted to Pierre Le Clair by the same treaty of Prairie du Chien, was surveyed in 1843 by Wheeler® Hedges, and by him the survey was also legally recorded. The north and south road opposite the old Morgan house divided the two reser- vations, which comprised the greater part of Paw Paw Grove. Charles Pierce says Samuel J. Best and Augustus Wiley bought the Le Clair reservation of 640 acres for $2.25 per acre. Wareham or Wiram Gates, everywhere known as " Bogus" Gates, purchased part of the land from Wiley.

Charles Morgan and wife and seven children probably came in 1836, from Virginia, and the next year he was keeping tavern half a mile east of David A. Town's house. William Rogers, already men- tioned, came in 1836. He was the first postmaster, having his office near Morgan's tavern. The next post-office was fifteen miles east of him. He was a man of versatile genius; had charge of the removal of the Indians from here to Council Bluffs in 1837 ; was an officer in the Mexican war, and afterward sheriff of Sacramento, California.

Henry and Medad Comstock, brothers, and blacksmiths, arrived in 1836. Both were drowned while hunting ducks in Iowa, in 1839 or 1840.

The first weddings were in 1836. On July 4, this year, Samuel

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MeDowell, who now eame to the southeast side of the grove and made his home there for a number of years, was married to Delilah Harris. This was the first marriage in this part of the country. Among the invited guests were Shabbona and two other Indians, who expressed great delight at the honor thus shown them. "After the wedding the men went into the grove, cut a liberty pole, brought it out on their shoulders, fastened the flag of our country to it, and raised it; when the stars and stripes floated to the breeze there went up such a shout as never before went up at Paw Paw.Grove."* The next wed- ding was that of George Town and Fidelia Sawyer, December 13, 1836. This was the first in what is now Wyoming. A week later, December 20, remembered as the remarkably cold day, Levi Carter was married to the widow Gillett. Rev. Benoni Harris officiated on these three occasions.

Jacob D. Rogers came in 1837 from Pennsylvania. His claim of 320 acres, mostly, if not wholly, in Sec. 10, was next west of George Town's claim, and therefore included the west part of the site of Paw Paw. He was the first to settle out in the prairie, west of the grove, and was ridi- culed for it. Yet he was a remarkable man. He was very devout, and heartily respected by all. He became a member of the Anti-Outlaws' Society, which seems to have been a vigilance committee that sought to bring big rascals to justice, and possibly one or two to a sudden end. He was a man of uncommon strength, an exhibition of which was liable to occur whenever his disgust (not wrath) was excited. At one time, when everything was brought by teams from Chicago, he was at that place, and among other things purchased a barrel of salt. He asked the man with whom he dealt to assist him to load it. The merchant made somne trivial excuse for not doing so, whereupon " Uncle Jake," with the remark, "Go and soak your head," seized the barrel of salt and put it over the rear end gate of an old Pennsylvania wagon. At another time his wagon was standing near the fenee across the road from his barn, wherein were five three-bushel sacks of oats, which he asked the two hired men to carry to the wagon while the boy hitched up the team. The men thought the wagon could be driven to the barn. This dis- gusted him at once, as he thought it smacked of laziness. He threw one sack on one shoulder, another on the other shoulder, then caused the men to put two more across them and the fifth still across those two, making a weight of four hundred and eighty pounds, then addressing the men said, " If either one of you men is too lazy to walk across the road I will carry him on top, if the other has ambition enough to put him there." He then carried the oats to the wagon. A stranger to fear, an inveterate talker, with the profoundest feelings of contempt and

* Hosea Town.

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

disgust for his enemies, either real or imaginary, his tongue was not infrequently a source of great annoyance to those with whom he became displeased. On the other hand, whoever succeeded in arousing his sympathies had a regiment at command. He would hazard anything in assistance. He was a conductor and his house a station on the " underground railroad." Disliking drunken school-masters he built a school-house, hired a teacher, and joined to secure a good school, which speedily took the pupils from the other. His log house, which was built in 1837, stood where Mr. Ritchie's now is, on Sec. 10. His neighbors urged him to open a temperance tavern, but he declined. He, however, offered to furnish lodging and food to travelers and their horses for fifty cents a night, because the taverns were then charging two dollars and a half for it. They were compelled to come down to his prices, and kept to them for years, and he then turned over to them the patronage that came to him.

James Goble, afterward sheriff, came with Rogers. Their wives were sisters. He says: "I have known Mrs. Rogers when a fire broke out to seize a kettle of water, mount a horse, dash away and put out the flames." William Jenkins and family came in 1837. He says "Paw Paw was a strange place then. It seemed to me that every other man I met was hunting a horse-thief, and you couldn't tell which was the thief-'twas usually both." It was at this time that John Sims appeared, and kept tavern, west of David A. Town's. Sims had been a circus proprietor. It is said that when drunk he would some- times kick over the tables loaded with food for guests at his tavern. Counterfeit money was found afterward by the purchaser of the house where he had lived.

The Butterfield or George Town cabin now passed into the hands of Wheeler Hedges, who arrived about this time. Willard Hastings was afterward in partnership with him, and the two kept tavern, stage-house, and store. The latter was final owner of the stand, which was burned down early in May 1841. He made a claim of the James Fonda land and erected a cabin; and he also built twice on the Rob- erts property in Paw Paw, first in 1841. The second was a frame house. A good business man, whose chief aim was to make money. He was killed on the railroad at Earlville and buried at Paw Paw a few years since.

This year a thousand Indians were encamped for a week at the Big Spring at the northwest corner of the grove (now near Mr. Wheeler's). They had come from Indiana in their removal west, and this was the rendezvous where they were paid off by the government. After re- ceiving their pay they went to Shabbona Grove and were met by a cir- cus, which got away as much of their money as it could. The Indians

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that lived in these parts had already been removed this year to their new hunting-grounds in the west. Their burial-ground here was near the southeast corner of Paw Paw Grove, occupying less than an acre of open ground. "There were," says William Jenkins, " some twenty of the dead reposing in a peculiar way. Each body was placed between two halves of a hollow log, which were supported above the ground upon posts. Other bodies were buried in the ground. The old chief Shabbona returned to this vicinity afterward to live, and died 1859. During the Black Hawk war he learned that the hostile savages were marching for the white settlements, intending to surprise and massacre all. At the peril of his life, alone, he sped his pony over the coun- try, warning every family as he hurried past. Most of them believed him and escaped. Those, or many of them, who delayed or sought to defend themselves where they were, perished. Ever after, this old chief, 'always courteons, a true gentleman,' was gratefully welcomed in Wyoming and wherever else known. He was distinguished, not for his eloquence, but for his influence among the tribes and his friend- ship for the whites. Both races 'had confidence in his truthfulness and good judgment.' When he visited Washington Gen. Cass intro- duced him to the crowd which had gathered to meet him, as 'the greatest Indian of the west and a true friend of the whites.'

Wanbonsie, chief of the tribe at Paw Paw Grove, was ever on the most friendly relations with Shabbona, and the latter and his tribe were frequent visitors to this place. These two chiefs counseled together like brothers. Waubonsie is described as having less force and influ- ence than Shabbona, whose advice he respected and followed. The trail from Chicago to the large Indian town at Rock Island, still to be seen at some points, ran past Shabbona Grove and along the south side of Paw Paw Grove.

In 1838 Rev. Caleb Morris had arrived. It is said that his wife owned slaves at time of marriage, but he induced her to free them. With him came his daughter, the widow Nancy Robinson, and her children, one daughter and six sons. One of the latter, William, was afterward postmaster. These all located south of the grove. One Mead came this year. This cabin was the third on the south side of the Chicago road, near the county line, on a claim purchased from Benjamin Harris. To Four-Mile Grove came the second settler, Dun- bar, who died soon after. Deacon Orlando Boardman came in 1840, from Pennsylvania, and settled 'on a claim purchased from Eber St. John. "It was through his instrumentality chiefly," says Deacon Hallock, " that the first Baptist church was built at South Paw Paw. He had some means, was very benevolent, and made traveling preachers of every persuasion welcome. He formed an active factor

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in the underground railroad, as did many others round here, but some were on the opposite side. Charles Morgan told Deacon Board- inan, "whether I am abolitionist or not, my best mares are." Morgan had a fine span. Deacon Hallock, who also arrived this year, further informs us that there were then eighteen families encircling Paw Paw Grove, thirteen of whom were in this township. Of this number, be- sides those already named, there were White and French Pete. The same season Bailey Breese came and bought a claim of 160 acres from William Rogers, including nearly all that on which East Paw Paw is situated. Mr. Breese's family came in May 1841. Among his chil- dren were Andrew, now a merchant at Earlville; Phebe, now wife of Dr. Vosbury of the same place, and Vincent, who lives at East Paw Paw. Mr. Breese was a speculator in real estate in the east, a man of fine education, public spirited, and very influential in shaping affairs at the grove. Pete May and family came in 1841. He bought from George Town nearly all the land on which the village of Paw Paw now stands, but never received a deed. He disappeared mysteriously about 1851, under such circumstances as to authorize the belief that he was foully dealt with. In 1879, while removing an old fence on his former place, some persons found a human body buried beneath it, sup- posed to be that of May. He was probably the victim of a drunken quarrel. Hon. O. W. Bryant in 1842 settled at Four-Mile Grove. Elder Norman Warriner came in 1843, and for twenty years was pas- tor of a Baptist church. The township and range lines were surveyed in 1838, but the sections were not run out until the winter of 1842-3. As soon as the last survey was finished preemptions were promptly made under the original act of 1841. Hitherto people had held title only by right of occupancy. A mutual protection society had existed to prevent claim-jumping, and Samuel McDowell was captain. An instance is given by Charles Pierce illustrating their treatment of of- fenders. A settler had given a home and employment to a lad till he could go out for himself and earn good wages ; but he made an un- grateful return by jumping one of the two forties which were his friend's all. Promptly the society met, and the ingrate defiant mounted a barrel to explain. He mistook his audience. One kick from the captain sent the barrel over, and others as quickly produced a rope which indicated its use. He begged mercy and left. This asso- ciation enforced its laws by effective methods. Claim-jumpers recog- nized no law but that of force, and it was applied to them in a manner which, if it did not cure their wickedness, satisfied justice and restored rights. Moral suasion was first employed, but if the intruder was ob- durate some convincing proof of the power and settled intent of the community was given. Ducking was discovered to be useful from a

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History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 65

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