USA > Illinois > McHenry County > History of McHenry County, Illinois : together with sketches of its cities, villages and towns : educational, religious, civil, military, and political history : portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, also a condensed History of Illinois > Part 14
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The only extensive stone quarry in the county is that just men- tioned. The rock, being thin-bedded, and containing chiert, is not calculated to serve all the purposes of a building stone, yet it be- comes very useful in foundations and for the rougher kinds of masonry. Along the Fox River the boulders found in the ridges have been quarried to some extent, and rough building material obtained therefrom. Lime has been burned from the limestone boulders in some places, but no extensive manufacture of it has been attempted.
Good clay for brick-making is abundant. Its prevailing color, when burned, is red, or reddish-brown. At Woodstock and Mc- Henry, however, a white or straw-colored brick is made. The clay for the white brick is obtained at Woodstock, under a peat bed, "and may," says Mr. Bannister, in the report of the State Geolo- gist, "possibly be a sedimentary formation more recent than the drift." That at McHenry he thinks belongs to the drift proper. At Woodstock the same clay used for making brick has been em- ployed with good results in the manufacture of drain tile.
Peat is abundant throughout the county, but the most extensive deposits are in the northern half. It is found in the sloughs or bogs, in varying depths and of various qualities. Where it has been tested it has been found to serve well the purpose of fuel. It
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is estimated that there are 4,000 or 5,000 acres of sloughs contain- ing peat in the two counties of McHenry and Lake. We have not the estimate for McHenry alone. One of the largest of the sloughs is situated near Hebron station, in sections 7 and 8 of township 46, range 7. Thence, with some interruptions, the bed extends several miles in a southwest direction, to the Nippersink, probably cover- ing an area equal to two or three square miles. The average depths, so far as examination has been made, appears to be from six to ten feet. Other sloughs vary in extent, few of them exceed- ing 200 or 300 acres, very generally so situated as to be capable of drainage, and thus made useful for pasturage. In these peat beds the county has an almost inexhaustible fuel supply, stored for future ages. Years hence its value and usefulness will doubtless be appreciated as it cannot be at present while the more convenient wood-supply remains abundant. Peat has been used as fuel in Durfee's brick and drain tile works at Woodstock, and has proved very satisfactory. Nowhere else has it been used except experi- mentally.
The foregoing facts relating to the geological features of the county are mainly condensed from State Geologist Worthen's "Economical Geology of Illinois," volume 2, chapter XVIII., which chapter was written by H. M. Bannister.
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Harriet B. Fryon
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CHAPTER II.
THE EARLY SETTLERS.
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. - CHARACTER- ISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT TRIBES. - INDIAN TITLES AND THEIR EXTINGUISHMENT .- VARIOUS TREATIES .- FINAL TREATY AT CHI- CAGO IN 1833 .- THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION .- GILLILAN, THE FIRST SETTLER IN MCHENRY COUNTY, 1834 .- EARLY CENTERS OF SETTLEMENT. - PIONEER LIFE. - THE LOG CABIN .- CHARAC- TERISTICS OF THE PIONEERS. - AN EARLY SETTLER'S REMINIS- CENCES.
INDIANS.
The aboriginal inhabitants of Northern Illinois were of the Algonquin lineage. The Sacs and Foxes, famous in the history of the Indian warfare, dwelt in the northwest portion of the State. They came originally from the vicinity of Quebec and Montreal, being driven west by the Iroquois. The Foxes first removed west and established themselves on the river bearing their name which flows into the head of Green Bay. The Sacs being driven from their country in Canada, fled west and settled near their kindred, the Foxes. Both tribes being threatened, they formed an alliance for mutual protection; and by intermarriage and community of in- terest eventually became substantially one people. From Green Bay they moved southward, and about the time the French pio- neers visited the country occupied the northwestern portion of this State, having driven out the Sauteaux, a Chippewa people. They were afterward allied with the Pottawatomies and other na- tions, in conjunction with whom they forced the tribes of the Illinois confederacy south, almost exterminating them finally. In 1779, with the Menomonees, Winnebagoes and other tribes living near the lakes, they attempted to destroy St. Louis, but were prevented by the opportune arrival of General George Rogers Clark with a force of 500 men. Finally, in the Black Hawk war, they at- tracted the attention of the whole country and won wide reputation. The Winnebagoes were another tribe inhabiting Northern Illi-
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nois. According to tradition, they anciently inhabited the western shores of Lake Michigan, north of Green Bay. Thence they ap- pear to have wandered southward, finally settling in Southern Wisconsin, Northern Illinois and Eastern Iowa. "The Illinois portion," according to Davidson & Stuve's "History of Illinois," "occupied a section of country on Rock River, in the county which bears their name, and the country to the east of it. In Pontiac's war they, with other lake tribes, hovered about the beleaguered fortress of Detroit, and made the surrounding forests dismal with midnight revelry and war-whoops. English agents, however, suc- ceeded in mollifying their resentinent, and when the new Ameri- can power arose, in 1776, they were subsequently arrayed on the side of the British authorities in regard to questions of local juris- diction at Prairie du Chien, Green Bay and Mackinaw. In the war of 1812 they remained the allies of England, and assisted in the defeat of Colonel Croghan, at Mackinaw; Colonel Dudley, at the rapids of the Maumee; and General Winchester, at the River Raisin. In the Winnebago war of 1827, they defiantly placed themselves in antagonism to the authority of the General Govern- ment, by assaulting a steamboat on the Mississippi engaged in furnishing supplies to the military post on the St. Peters."
The Pottawatomies were found by the early French explorers in habiting the country east of the southern extremity of Lake Michi- gan. Thence a portion of the tribe passed around the lake and occupied Northeastern Illinois. At Chicago, in 1812, they perpe- trated one of the most atrocious massacres known in the history of barbaric warfare. They removed west from Illinois, and found their way to the Indian Territory. During their residence in Northeastern Illinois, portions of the energetic and powerful Ottawa and Chippewa tribes lived with the Pottawatomies.
INDIAN TITLES AND THEIR EXTINGUISHMENT.
By a treaty in 1804 the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States an extensive tract of land on both sides of the Mississippi River, on the east bank extending from the mouth to the source of the Illinois River and thence north to the Wisconsin River. In 1816 that portion of this territory lying north of a line drawn west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan was ceded back to the allied tribes-tlie Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatomies. Out of this cession grew the Winnebago war, the tribe feeling aggrieved because it was not included in the treaty. The "war"
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was not of great magnitude, but it resulted in the complete humil- iation of the Winnebagoes and their abandonment of all claim to the land south of the Wisconsin River. This was in 1827.
The Black Hawk war of 1831-'2, an account of which is given elsewhere, prepared the way for the extinguishment of the last vestige of the Indian title to land in Northern Illinois, and opened an extensive region, rich in beauty and fertility, to the white settler.
Sept. 15, 1832, a treaty was concluded at Fort Armstrong whereby the Winnebago nation ceded to the United States all their lands lying south and east of the Wisconsin River and the Fox River of. Green Bay. The united nations, namely, the Chippewas, Otta- was and Pottawatomies, still retained their title to the land of Northeastern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, besides other ill defined lands in Indiana and Michigan.
As there was already a considerable settlement at Chicago, which was growing rapidly, there was a general desire that all Indian titles to land in that vicinity be speedily extinguished. That this result might be secured peaceably, in September, 1833, a grand council of chiefs and leading men of the tribes was called to meet at Chicago. The Government Commissioners, G. B. Por- ter, Thomas J. V. Owen and William Weatherfield, were present, and on the 26th of September, a treaty was signed, which was rati- fied by the Senate May 22, 1834. Article 1 ceded all land of the united nations "along the west shore of Lake Michigan and between this lake and the land ceded to the United States by the Winnebago nation by the treaty at Fort Armstrong, made Sept. 15, 1832; bounded on the north by the country lately ceded by the Menominees, and on the south by the country ceded at the treaty of Prairie du Chien, made July 29, 1829, supposed to contain 5,000,000 acres."
This cession completely extinguished all title to land owned or claimed by the united nations east of the Mississippi. In return for it the Indians were given a reservation of 5,000,000 acres on the east bank of the Missouri River. The treaty further stipulated that the Indians should be allowed to remain in the country ceded by thiem until August, 1836, when they were obliged to remove beyond the Mississippi.
THE DAWN OF OIVILIZATION.
There is no possible means of ascertaining the name of the first
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white man who set foot upon the soil of McHenry County. It is not at all improbable, however, that some of the French explorers visited this part of the present State of Illinois while the red man yet held undisputed sway over it. It is likewise probable that early Indian traders visited the Fox River in this county and used it for canoe traffic. But in the absence of direct evidence, specula- tion is idle.
By a law of Congress settlers were forbidden to occupy the newly ceded Indian lands before the year 1836. This provision of the law, like most others of a similar nature, did not result in actual prohibition. A few bold pioneers, anxious to test the quality of the soil of the new country, longing for the wild free- dom of life on the broad prairies, pushed their way into the region west of Lake Michigan, and the year 1835 witnessed the advent of several white settlers to the present counties of McHenry and Lake.
The first white settler in McHenry County located in what is now the town of Algonquin, in November, 1834. His name was James Gillilan, and he came from West Virginia with his wife and family, settling here at the time mentioned. Mrs. Gillilan was the first white woman in the county.
Two principal settlements were founded in 1835-the "Virginia settlement," so called because the majority of the early settlers in that neighborhood were Virginians; and the "Pleasant Grove" settlement, now known as Marengo and vicinity. The Virginia settlement was principally in the eastern part of the present town of Dorr, where the following persons settled in 1835: James Dufield, Christopher Walkup, John Walkup, Josiah Walkup, Wm. Hartman, John Gibson, John McClure and Samuel Gillilan.
The settlers of 1835 in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood were Oliver Chatfield, Calvin Spencer, A. B. Coon, Porter Chatfield, Russel Diggins, Richard Simpkins and Moody B. Bailey.
In the northern part of the county no settlements were made before 1836, Josiah H. Giddings being one of the earliest in that section.
With the year 1836 there was quite an influx of population. At the time of the first election, in 1837, the population of the county was estimated at 500, of whom probably more than 300 lived within the present limits of Lake County. The census of 1840 showed that McHenry County had a population of 2,578. Lake County had been formed the year previous.
The early settlers came chiefly from New York, Virginia and
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New England. An English settlement was founded early in the northeastern part of the county. Hartland was settled principally by Irish Catholics. Later, a large number of German settlers came to the county. For further details respecting settlement the reader is referred to the township histories.
LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS.
The life of the pioneer is humble yet glorious. He prepares the way for advancing civilization, endures poverty and hardship, toils without recompense, that his posterity may enjoy the full fruition of his labors. He is the adventurer in fields untried, the path- finder, the discoverer, the advance agent leading others to a land of promise. In all ages and countries he has been honored and remembered on account of his self-sacrificing labor.
Pioneer life in McHenry County finds its almost exact counter- part in every part of the West. When the first settlers arrived here, they found a fair and beautiful region, but just left by the aboriginal inhabitants. Forests were to be felled, prairies broken, cabins built, mills, school-houses, churches, roads-the labor of a lifetime rose before them. But were these bold spirits dismayed ? Not they ! They had journeyed from their far distant homes, through a rough country, over bad roads, rivers, swamps and marshes, passing nights with no shelter above them, and toiling forward by day, meeting new obstacles ever and anon. Now they had reached the land for which they had started, and fair and pleasant was the prospect.
In McHenry County the settlement is of so recent date that al- most every one is familiar with pioneer ways either from actual experience or from hearsay. Nevertheless, for the benefit of pos- terity, who may be interested in knowing what was the real nature of pioneer life and the character of the work of the early settlers, we devote a portion of this chapter to a description of primitive manners, customs and labor.
Such has been the change since the days of our fathers and grandfathers in this State, it is almost as though a new race of beings had come into possession of the land. Clothing, diet, dwellings, social customs, individual habits, have all been trans- formed. Old ways are not our ways; but they were good ways, and served their purpose admirably, and the memory of thein is full of tender interest to us. The earliest settlers, upon their arri- val, constructed hastily what they called "three-faced camps;"
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that is, buildings with three walls, and the front open. These camps were usually about seven feet high, without floors, and roofed with poles upon which bark or shingles lay, held in place by weight-poles. No windows, doors or chimneys were needed in these dwellings, which were not built for temporary residences, but usually merely to serve as shelter while the cabin was being constructed.
The cabin of round logs was a material advance upon the camp. Tlie interstices between the logs were filled with chips, or sticks, then daubed abundantly with clay mortar. A log "honse"-in distinction from a cabin-was constructed of hewed logs, and was the prevailing style of residence for rich and poor. The building was often withont a floor, but more commonly one was built of "punclieons," or split logs, made smooth as possible on one side by the adze or the ax. The roof was covered with long shingles, or "shakes," held in place by weight-poles. For a fire-place, a space about six feet long was cut out of the logs at one end of the room, and three sides were built up with logs, making an offset in the wall. This was lined with stone when convenient, and plenti- fully daubed with clay. The chimney was built of small split sticks, plastered together with clay, and rose but little above the roof.
A space for a doorway was cut in one side of the cabin, and in it was hung a door made of split shingles or puncheons, fastened together with cleats and wooden pins. The hinges were also of wood, and the latch. The latch-string was of leather, extending through a hole a few inches above the latch, to the ontside, so that a pull lifted the latch from the catch enabling the door to open. It was only necessary for those inside to pull the latch-string in to lock the door securely against all comers.
The living-room was of good size, as it ought to be-for it was parlor, dining-room, sitting-room, kitchen, pantry and bed-room, all in one. The rafters were usually adorned with flitches of bacon or festoons of dried pumpkins. In one corner of the apartment were seen the loom and, perhaps, the spinning wheel, while the kitchen ntensils were grouped about the ample fire-place. One side of the room was devoted to the family wardrobe, which hung suspended from pegs driven into the wall.
The trusty rifle usually hung over the door, and near it the powder-horn and hunting-pouch. Well-to-do families had a spare room for guests -- that is, a space in the loft of sufficient size to
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contain a bed, besides serving usually the purposes of a lumber- room. The loft was reached by a ladder from the main room. Sleeping apartments were sometimes separated from the sitting- room by partitions made by suspending quilts, coverlets or sheets from the upper floor.
This mode of living was not so irksome as might be sup- posed. People soon became accustomed to it, and patiently put up with it until their means had increased sufficiently to enable them to enlarge their domicile by a lean-to, or, better yet, to construct a double log cabin -- a happy distinction to which only the wealthy could attain. The furniture of the cabin was as primi- tive as the house itself. Bedsteads, chairs and tables were of home manufacture, and the makers were not always skilled workmen. The articles used in the kitchen were few and simple : a " Dutch oven," a skillet, or long-handled frying pan, an iron pot or kettle, and sometimes a coffee-pot were all that the best furnished kitchen contained. When a stone-wall formed the base of the fire-place a long iron crane on which, attached to a pot-hook, hung a large pot or kettle, was one of the indispensable features. The style of cooking was necessarily simple, as all of it had to be done at the fire-place and in the fire. Corn meal, cooked in various forms, such as "mush," "Johnnycake," "hoe-cake" and "pone," was one of the staple articles of diet. The " pone" and "corn-dodger" were cooked in the Dutch oven, set upon a bed of glowing coals. The oven being filled with dough, the cover, already heated on the fire, was placed over it and covered with hot embers. After the bread was cooked, it was taken from the oven and placed near the fire to keep it warm, while the oven was again pressed into use in the preparation of some other article of food. The " hoe-cake" was cooked upon a board or flat stone placed in front of the fire, a thick dough of meal and water having first been prepared. Cooked pumpkin was sometimes added to the dough to give it richness and flavor. Venison or ham was fried in the Dutch oven. Hominy or hulled corn was often added to the frugal meal. Wild honey was found in abundance; game was plenty, and although flour was at first scarce, the pioneer's bill of fare was usually a good one, containing a plenty, if not a variety, of good wholesome food, well cooked.
The pioneers were true-hearted and hospitable. Strangers were never denied shelter or food, though often the family were much dis- commoded by furnishing such entertainment. The early settlers of
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McHenry County were mainly from the older States of the Union -New York, the New England States and Virginia-though there were some English and Irish. They were generally poor, and un- derstanding the hardships and disadvantages of poverty themselves, they sympathized with, and aided the more readily, those whom they found in need of assistance. Selfishness was not in their nat- ure. They were bold, brave, free-hearted, and led nseful and up- right lives. Of course there were exceptions-now and then a self- ish man, and once in a great while a rascal-but the great body of the early settlers was composed of men fearless in the right, hon- est, generous, truthful, and independent even though they were poor. Their situation was one calculated to beget feelings of friend- liness and helpfulness. They were all situated alike; all had left the associations and the friends of other days, and were seeking the accomplishment of a difficult task. There was no room for idlers, but newcomers were looked upon as helpers, and the watch- word appeared to be, " The more the merrier." Says an early writer: "Men must cleave to their kind and must be dependent upon each other. Pride and jealousy give way to the natural yearnings of the human heart for society. They begin to rub off the neutral prejudices; one takes a step and then the other; they meet half way and embrace, and the society thus newly organized and constituted is more liberal, enlarged, muprejudiced, and of course more affectionate than a society of people of like birth and character who bring all their early prejudices as a common stock to be transmitted as an inheritance to posterity.
The life of toil and hardship was one well calculated to develop a strong character and a self-reliant, trustful spirit. Many men of eminence have risen from humble homes; have studied by the fire- light, or in the old-fashioned log school-house, and become distin- guished far above those reared in homes of luxury and schooled in affluence. The best citizens of McHenry County to-day are those who have cleared the forests and subdued the prairies, or the de- scendants of these early settlers. The boys in early times were early taught to put their hands to every kind of farm work; they plowed and grubbed; pulled flax, broke and " hackled" it; wore tow shirts, coon skin caps; picked and carded wool; and "spooled" and carded wool. The girls were taught to make and niend their own clothes; to cook, wash and scrub; to lend a hand in the harvest field if necessary. They were not injured by the exercise. It gave
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them strength and muscle, and fitted them for useful wives and mothers.
Such industry, coupled necessarily with energy and frugality, brought its own certain reward. The men grew prematurely old while sustaining their burdens, but they saw the forests pass away and beautiful fields of grain take their place. Marvelous indeed has been the change wrought in a half century. Many an aged pi- oneer, as he sits in his easy chair and overlooks the past, involun- tarily exclaims, "Is it possible that all these things have been wrought by the hand of man within the space of one life-time?"
" The voice of Nature's very self drops low, As though she whispered of the long ago, When down the wandering stream the rude canoe Of some lone trapper glided into view And loitered down the watery path that led Thro' forest depths that only knew the tread Of savage beasts and wild barbarians That skulked about with blood upon their hands And murder in their hearts. The light of day Might barely pierce the gloominess that lay Like some dark pall across the waters face And folded all the land in its embrace. The panther's screaming and the bear's low growl, The snake's sharp rattle and the wolf's wild howl, The owl's grim chuckle, as it rose and fell In alternation with the Indian's yell, Made fitting prelude for the gory plays That were enacted in the early days.
" Now, o'er the vision, like a mirage, falls The old log cabin with its dingy walls And crippled chimney, with the crutch-like prop Beneath, a sagging shoulder on the top. The 'coon-skin, battened fast on either side; The whisps of leaf tobacco, cut and dried; The yellow strands of quartered apples hung In rich festoons, that tangle in among The morning glory vines that clamber o'er The little clapboard roof above the door ; Again through mists of memory rise The simple scenes of home before the eyes; The happy mother, humming with her wheel, The dear old melodies that used to steal So drowsily upon the summer air ; The house-dog hid his bone, forgot his care And nestled at her feet, to dream, perchance, Some cooling dream of winter-time romance. The square of sunshine through the open door
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That notched its edge across the puncheon floor, And made a golden coverlet, whereon The god of slumber had a picture drawn Of babyhood, in all the loveliness
Of dimpled cheek and limb and linsey dress; The bough-filled fire-place and the mantel wide, Its fire-scorched ankles stretched on either side, Where, perchance, upon its shoulders neath the joists The old clock hiccoughed, harsh and husky-voiced ;
Tomatoes, red and yellow, in a row, Preserved not then for diet, but for show ;
The jars of jelly, with their dainty tops; Bunches of penny-royal and cordial drops; The flask of camphor and vial of squills, The box of buttons, garden seeds and pills.
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