USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Rockford > History of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois, from the first settlement in 1834 to the civil war > Part 4
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HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
name of Kent's creek was subsequently given. They selected a site on the west side of the river. Rock river was then consid- ered navigable and a waterway to the north and south. The site of Rockford, on a navigable stream, midway between Chi- cago and Galena, was at once recognized as possessing superior advantages. Kent and Blake then proceeded down the stream to Dixon's Ferry, which received its name from John Dixon, the first white settler of Lee county, who located at that point in the spring of 1830. There they sold their canoe and returned overland to Galena, by the road leading from Peoria which crossed Rock river at that point. This trip covered nine days.
Soon after their return to Galena they prepared for a second journey. They procured supplies, and with a heavily laden lumber wagon and a single span of horses, they started over- land for their new El Dorado. There were no roads, nor even Indian trails. Their route was the Galena and Dixon line of travel as far as Chambers' Grove. From this point they took a northeasterly course through an unknown country. Their journey covered four days. On the evening of Sunday, August 24, these pioneers arrived at their destination. The party con- sisted of Germanicus Kent, Thatcher Blake, a Mr. Evans, and another man whose name is unknown.
The settlement of Rockford was not a romantic adventure. These men wore no badges of eminence. They were not flattering courtiers of a foreign prince, and possessed no commissions or patents. They did not thrust their swords into the virgin soil and solemnly take possession in the name of an alien king. They did not kiss the earth in token of devotion, nor recite to the empty air the purpose of their coming. There were no wintry skies, no breaking waves, nor stern and rock-bound coast. They were not exiles from the land of their birth, nor did they seek the treasures of the mine. Neither did they come in quest of a faith's pure shrine nor freedom to worship God. Kent came to build a sawmill, and Blake was a tiller of the soil. The significance of their coming was in the fact that they came to stay. Thus did Germanicus Kent and Thatcher Blake make the first actual and permanent settlement in what is now the city of Rockford. In this quiet, prosy way did these sturdy pioneers illustrate Goethe's observation that the ideal can only come from the development of the real.
Mr. Kent was the ruling spirit in this enterprise. He was then in the prime of life, and had already proven himself to be
29
SALE OF INDIAN " FLOATS."
a thoroughgoing man of affairs. With Dante he could say : "In the midway of this our mortal life I found me in a gloomy wood." Mr. Kent was the director and provider of those who were to begin the work of transformation from the "gloomy wood" to the Forest City. Those who came with him were drawing pay, and were without expense. Itwasotherwise with Mr. Kent. Every day brought its expense, and no income. He had sold his southern home, and his family at Galena was patiently awaiting developments. He could not retrace his steps. He could only look to the future, and trust for the best. Mr. Kent kept a journal, and under date of August 18, 1834, he writes : "Hired Mr. Blake at eighteen dollars per month to live with me on Rock river, to take charge of my business, and to do all kinds of work, to remain with me from one month to twenty-four months."
Both Kent and Blake located claims. Mr. Kent's claim comprised a tract of land which included the Tinker estate and the water-power, and extended south to Montague's Addition ; on the west it included the estate now owned by the family of the late Judge Church, and extended north to half section line ; the eastern line followed the bank of the river. Mr. Kent, however, only held temporary squatter's possession of this tract, and he obtained full legal title to only a small portion of it. Mr. Kent's name does not appear prominently in the real estate transactions of his time, except as the agent of others. Sections twenty-one, twenty-two and twenty-seven, which include a large portion of West Rockford, were Indian "floats," to which reference was made in a preceding chapter. These sections were sold by their respective owners to Daniel Whitney, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, for eight hundred dollars each. The deeds were executed February 12, 1840. Mr. Whitney gave power of attorney to Charles S. Hempstead, of Galena. Mr. Hempstead, through Kent and Brinckerhoff as agents, sold the greater part of these sections to Isaac N. Cunningham, Abiram Morgan and Richard Montague, who became, in a sense, the proprietors of the corresponding portion of West Rockford.
Mr. Blake's claim included parts of sections twenty and twenty-nine. A claim was made in the autumn of 1834 by Mr. Kent for an English gentleman named John Wood, of Hunts- ville, Alabama. Mr. Wood, however, did not take possession of this claim until the following spring. The first work done by these pioneers was the erection of two logcabins. Mr. Kent's
30
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
cabin was on a site directly east of Mrs. Tinker's brick house, and was removed when South Main street was opened. Mr. Blake's cabin was built in the grove on the claim which he had chosen.
During the autumn and winter Mr. Kent made trips to Chicago and Galena. He employed a number of workmen, who had come from Galena, in various kinds of work. Among these was the construction of a dam and a sawmill on Kent's creek. The timber for the mill was cut from the grounds now occupied by Rockford college. In the following January, when the ice was sixteen inches thick, a sudden thaw swept away the dam. To this day the observer will notice that the rock at the bottom of the creek, near the Swiss cottage, shells off, and the force of the water and ice made a deep hole in the bottom of the creek. The stream was then twice or three times its present width, and its current was proportionally stronger. Such was the fate of Rockford's first dam, which was built very near the spot where Hon. Robert H. Tinker's suspension bridge spans the stream. Early in the following spring workmen began digging the race; the construction of the second dam, just below the first, was undertaken in June, and the mill was completed in July. When the dam was completed the water arose so as to make a twelve- foot head, and covered the land now occupied by the several railroads as switch-yards. The water sometimes backed nearly to State street. Several years later the citizens determined to remove this dam, because they believed it bred malaria; and this resolution was executed without due process of law.
Besides the cabins already noted, Mr. Kent began the erec- tion of another and better log house, in the fall of 1834, which was completed the following spring. This structure consisted of an upright and a wing, and was considered an uncommonly good house for those days. Mr. Kent's family probably came from Galena in May, 1835. Mr. Blake boarded in the family for two years, and only occupied his own cabin in the grove when he found it more convenient to do so while tilling his land. The business of the settlement during the first years included a general store, a blacksmith shop, sawmill, a primitive hotel, a crude system of banking, and mail facilities of a private sort. All these were under the general proprietorship of Mr. Kent.
It may be safely said that few men in trade, commerce or manufacturing survived the financial crash, and the depression which swept over the country in 1837 and later. Mr. Kent was
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MR. KENT'S REVERSES .- HIS DEATH.
poorly prepared for the storm. His ready capital had become exhausted, and he was now in debt for money, merchandise and property. His goods had been sold on credit, and collec- tions were impossible. His property was depreciated and unsalable, and embarassment and failure were unavoidable. Mr. Kent made the best settlement of his affairs possible under the circumstances, and honestly surrendered everything. His capital which he brought with him, his buildings and improve- ments, his plans and preparations, and even his prospects were gone; and he saw no star of hope in the Rockford which he had founded and helped to build ; no opportunities which he might retrieve. And soin 1844 he bade her along and sad farewell and went to Virginia, where he made his home the remainder of his life. He engaged in trade in Craig, Fayette and Montgomery counties. Mrs. Kent died in Blacksburg, Virginia, May 26, 1851. Mr. Kent lived with his daughter, Mrs. Mary Irby Black, the last five years of his life, in feeble health, in Blacksburg, where he died March 1, 1862.
This man will ever stand foremost in the history of Rock- ford, in point of time and early events. In his character and life there are are elements that arrest and fix attention, and which merit grateful remembrance. Kent school, in South Rockford, Kent's creek and Kent street are named in hishonor.
Fortune was more kind to Mr. Blake. He resided on his farm until 1851, when he removed into Rockford and engaged in real estate business. For two years preceding his death Mr. Blake operated extensively in timber lands in Wisconsin. Mr. Blake died October 8, 1880. Mrs. Blake was living in Novem- ber, 1899, at an advanced age, and feeble in mind and body. Mrs. Clarence Bean is their daughter. The Blake school is named in honor of Thatcher Blake.
CHAPTER VII.
PICTURESQUE ROCKFORD .- ITS FLORA AND FAUNA.
M OST of the country around Rockford was originally prairie.
The first settlers found the west side of what is now the city largely wooded, reaching south below Knowlton street, and north as far as Fisher avenue, and extending west beyond the creek, and to the high ground of South Rockford, and up the south branch ; also on the East side from near State, south to Keith's creek, and east to creek and to Sixth street. North of State, on the flat, was wood and brush up as far as the brewery. John H. Thurston gives this vivid description of the east side of the river as it appeared in the spring of bis arrival : "The season of 1837 opened early, and as the earth became clothed in green, it presented the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. Innumerable flowers dotted the scene in every direction. What is now the Second ward was covered with tall, thrifty white oak timber. The fires had killed most of the underbrush, and it was a magnificent park from Kishwaukee street west to the river, and from Walnut street south to the bluffs at Keith's creek."
Rock river is a historic waterway, and presents a great variety of picturesque scenery. Southey's apostrophe may be addressed to her: "Thou art beautiful, queen of the valley! thou art beautiful." The Rock has practically two heads: the smaller, in a rustic stream which flows from the north into swamp-girted Lake Koshkonong; the larger, in the four lakes at Madison, the charming capital of Wisconsin, which empty their waters into the Avon-like Catfish or Yahara, which in turn pours into the Rock below Lake Koshkonong. The river, at Rockford, before it was dammed, was nine or ten feet below its present level, and about four rods narrower, with clear gravel bed, and no mud or swamp about its shores. The water was very clear and pure before the cultivation of the land on its banks had caused the wash of soil by the rains. There is an
33
REMINISCENCE OF MARGARET FULLER.
interesting historic spot on the river some miles below Rock- ford. Margaret Fuller visited Oregon in 1843. There she found new themes for her muse. At the riverside there is a fine spring whose waters are cool and unfailing. On the bluff above it today are growing gnarled and twisted cedars. In the branches of one there was an eagle's next. Beneath its shade Margaret Fuller wrote her poem, "Ganymede to his Eagle." The spring still sends forth its pure stream, and hundreds of people visit the spot. Under the shadow of the trees which falls upon the pool, they read the marble tablet set in the solid rock above, which bears this inscription: "Ganymede's Springs, named by Margaret Fuller (Countess d' Ossoli), who named this bluff Eagle's Nest, and beneath the cedars on its crest wrote 'Gany- mede to his Eagle,' July 4, 1843."
The level at the intersection of State and Madison streets, on the East side, was about ten feet higher than at present. At the intersection of State with First the level was about ten feet lower than it is today. Between these two points the ground was six feet above its present level. From the river bank to Madison was therefore quite a steep ascent. West of the river, the ground was low, as it now appears at the knitting facto- ries, and so continued nearly to Main street, as it yet remains in some places.
South of the depot of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, on the West side, and from ten rods west of Main street, the land was low, only a little above the creek, with the exception of the ridge near the creek. When the damn was built this area was called the pond. This depression has been filled, and the site is mainly devoted to railroad purposes.
The bluffs at the college grounds descended steep to the water's edge, unbroken and unworn. They were covered with grass, brush and trees on the top and sides. There were many red cedars, some of which were large and gnarled. The whole formed a pleasant and romantic spot.
At first there were no roads, and the first track would be followed until a road was worn or a change made. The cross- ing of streams and sloughs was difficult. East of the city, and running nearly parallel with the river, was a wagon road made by the army wagons and trains at the time the troops under Major Smith passed on their way to the battle of the Bad Axe, in Wisconsin, in 1832, where Black Hawk was defeated. This road, however, did not run on the line needed by the settlers, and it
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34
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
was soon obliterated. The Indian trails were of little use. The red men always went single file, so that their trails were but narrow paths, and of no special value to the settlers. These trails were easily traceable as late as 1840, and possibly later.
Few antiquities, save arrows and hammers, werefound, and the early race left little to mark its occupation of this region. Only a small number of Indian graves were found, and these did not indicate careful burial. Some traces of burying ou scaffolds and in trees were supposed to remain; but little information can be obtained upon this point. The headless Big Thunder skeleton sat in his stockade on the court house mound in Bel- videre as late as the autumn of 1838. But neither his renown as a warrior and chief, nor common reverence for the dead, pro- tected his bones or marked their grave.
The Indians had taken their final departure previous to 1834. There were a few Pottawatomies in the vicinity of Rock- ton. Rock river was apparently the dividing line between the Pottawatomies and the Winnebagoes. The latter had removed to their western reservation. Those who occasionally returned, singly or in small companies, to revisit their former home, were harmless to the settlers.
Wild flowers were abundant, both on the prairies and in the woods. They were of great variety and beauty. Hickory- nuts, butternuts, black walnuts and hazelnuts were plenty. In fruits, there were crab apples, wild plums, thorn apples, grapes, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries.
Game was plenty. It consisted of deer, wolves, wildcats, otter, coon, muskrat, squirrel, woodchuck, wild geese, ducks, crane, heron, plover, snipe, prairie hens, partridges, quail, loon, gull, and pigeons. Mr. Thurston says: "Having never shot a game bird previous to my arrival in Rockford, the vast quan- tity of feathered game which I saw migrating northward in the spring of 1837 excited my unbounded surprise and admi- ration." Fish of the varieties now found in this locality was abundant. Wild honey was obtained in considerable quantity. The small birds then found still remain, except those taken for game. Snakes were quite numerous. The rattlesnake and the massasauga were poisonous, and the blowing adder and a variety of water snake were also so considered. Today a snake is rarely seen, except in woodland and on river bottoms.
CHAPTER VIII.
DANIEL SHAW HAIGHT .- OTHER SETTLERS OF 1835.
T THE first settler of what is now East Rockford was Daniel Shaw Haight, who arrived April 9, 1835. Mr. Haight came to Illinois from Bolton, Warren county, New York. A year or two previous to his appearance on Rock river he had selected a claim near Geneva, Kane county. Hesold this claim, and in company with two or three men, he came to Rockford on a tour of inspection. He selected a tract of land, which comprised a large part of what is now the First and Second wards. Mr. Haight went back to Geneva for his family, and in May he returned to Rockford with his wife and child; Miss Carey, who was Mrs. Haight's sister, and a hired man. Mrs. Mary Haight and her sister were the first white women to settle in the county, asitis supposed they preceded by two or three weeks the arrival of Mrs. Kent. Mrs. Haight appears to have been equal to the duties and trials of pioneer life. She had no acquaintance with books or literature; but she possessed a good mind, and was alert, shrewd, and affable to strangers. Mr. Haight was a rugged, roistering pioneer, and a shrewd man of affairs.
Upon his arrival Mr. Haight put up a tent under a large bur oak tree, which his family occupied until his cabin was completed. This dwelling, built in the summer of 1835, was the first structure on the East side. It was built on the eastern part of the lot which now forms the northeast corner of State and Madison streets. This spot was at the brow of the table- land, from which the descent was rapid toward the river. The house was built in regular pioneer style, without the use of a single nail. The main part was abont eighteen feet square, built of oak logs. It had a puncheon floor, two windows and a door. The cellar was simply an excavation under the centre. "Such a house," says Mr. Thurston, "may be built with an axe and an auger, and is a warm, comfortable dwelling. Haight made an addition in '36, with a space between ten feet wide and roofed over, which had a shingle roof and floor
1
36
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
of sawed lumber." Mr. Haight's second house was on the north- east corner of State and Madison streets. It was a frame structure, and completed in 1837 by Thomas Lake and Sidney Twogood. This house was divided and a portion removed to the northeast corner of Walnut and Second streets. It is the oldest frame structure now standing in Rockford.
The first public religious service in Rockford was held the second Sunday in June, 1835, at the house of Germanicus Kent, and was conducted by his brother, the Rev. Aratus Kent, of Galena. It has been said that on that day every soul in Rock- ford attended divine worship. The audience comprised Mr. and Mrs. Kent, Mr. and Mrs. Haight, Miss Carey, Thatcher Blake, Albert Sanford, Mr. Van Zandt, who was Mr. Kent's millwright, a man in the employ of Mr. Haight, and two other persons whose names are unknown. Thus it will be noted that in early June, 1835, there were less than a dozen persons in Rockford. This small number may be explained by the supposition that several workmen, who had been temporarily employed by Mr. Kent, had removed from the settlement.
It is impossible to give the name of every settler in what is now Rockford township at the close of the first year after Mr. Kent's arrival. In the autumn of 1834 Mr. Kent solicited a number of his southern friends to settle in the rising colony. Reference was made in Chapter VI. to John Wood. Another gentleman who thus responded was James B. Martyn. He was a native of the County of Cornwall, England, and had emigrated to Huntsville, Alabama, where he had made the acquaintance of Germanicus Kent. Mr. Martyn arrived in Rockford late in the summer of 1835. He subsequently removed to Belvidere, where he engaged in the milling business.
James Boswell and James Wood also came from the south about this time. Mr. Boswell settled on a claim about half a mile north of State street, on the west side of the river, imine- diately above Dr. Haskell's orchard. The next year Mr. Boswell traded with Mr. Spaulding for property directly opposite, on the east side of the river.
Eliphalet Gregory was born in Danbury, Connecticut, April 23, 1804. He came from New York in June, with his fam- ily. His claim extended east one-half mile from Kishwaukee street, and south from State to his brother Samuel's claim. His first log house was near Keith's creek, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, and west of Seventh street. A part of his later
37
THE FIRST PHYSICIAN.
grout house still stands on Charles street. Mr. Gregory died February 16, 1876.
Samuel Gregory arrived in Rockford December 8th. His claim was approximately bounded by what are now Sixth and Fourteenth avenues, and Ninth street and Churchill Place. His log house was on Seventh avenue, by Keith's creek, between Ninth and Tenth streets. Mr. Gregory spent his last years in Pekin, New York, where he died in May, 1886. His sons are: Delos S., John Clark, Homer, and James B. There were also four daughters: Mrs. Delia A. Johnson, deceased; Mrs. Addie S. Witwer, of Chicago; Mrs. Edna J. Hulbert, deceased : and one who died in infancy.
Ephraim Wyman arrived in September. He was a native of Lancaster, Massachusetts. In 1824, when he was fifteen years of age, he removed to Keene, New Hampshire, and from there he came to Rockford. He followed the business of baker from 1835 until 1850. In the latter year he went to California, where he remained three years. Mr. Wyman owned and platted a tract of land in the heart of West Rockford, to which reference will be made in a subsequent chapter. A street on the West side bears his name. Mr. Wyman was county treasurer and assessor in 1844-45. In his last years he was afflicted with blindness. Mr. Wyman was a worthy gentleman, and iskindly remembered. He died in the autumn of 1893. Mrs. Wyman still resides in Rockford. Their only child died when less than four years old.
Levi Moulthrop, M. D., had the distinction of being the first resident physician in Winnebago county, as now organ- ized. Dr. Whitney had probably preceded him at Belvidere, which at that time was included in Winnebago county. Dr. Moulthrop was descended from Mathew Moulthrop, who settled at Quinnipiac, now New Haven, Connecticut, April 18, 1638, and who was one of the original signers of the Plantation Covenant, ratified June 4, 1639. Dr. Moulthrop first came to this county in the autumn of 1835, and permanently settled here in the following spring. He was born near Litchfield, Connecticut, November 1, 1805. He received his early educa- tion in his native town, and completed a course of medicine and surgery at Fairfield college, in the state of New York. In the spring of his arrival in this county, he settled upon a claim of several hundred acres near Kishwaukee, now in New Milford township, and began the practice of medicine. June 30, 1840,
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HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
Dr. Moulthrop was married to Miss Margaret, eldest daughter of Sampson George, and died after a brief illness, September 12th of the same year. His son, Levi Moulthrop, was born in the spring of the following year. Dr. Moulthrop is said to have brought the first copy of Shakespeare into the county. He was a member of the Masonicfraternity, a Democrat in politics, and a communicant of the Episcopal church.
Richard Montague came July 1st from Massachusetts, and purchased a tract of land near the city. A street in South Rockford, an island in Rock river and a ward school bear his name. Mr. Montague died July 16, 1878. His son, S. S. Mon- tague, became an expert railroad surveyor.
Adam Keith came from Indiana. He was born in Pennsyl- vania, in 1795. From there he went to Ohio, thence to Indiana. His name was given to Keith's creek. Mr. Keith removed from Illinois to Wisconsin in 1846. He died at Beaver City, Nebraska, in 1883, at the age of eighty-seven years.
William E. Dunbar settled in what is now South Rockford, and was a leader in the organization of the county. Mr. Dunbar served as county recorder from 1839 to 1843. He died Octo- ber 16, 1847.
P. P. Churchill was born in Vermont in 1804. He pre- empted a farm of one hundred and sixty acres east of the city. Mr. Churchill died January 11, 1889. Heis remembered for his simple ways, kind heart and upright life.
Among other settlers in the township during the year were : John Vance, John Caton, Joseph Jolly, Charles Hall, Lewis Haskins, Milton Kilburn, William Smith, Luke Joslin, Israel Morrill, D. A. Spaulding, Lova Corey, Alonson Corey, Abel Campbell, Ezra Barnum, Anson Barnum, James Taylor, William Hollenbeck, John Hollenbeck, V. Carter, Joseph F. Sanford, Jon- athan Corey, Daniel Beers, Mason Tuttle, and Mr. Noble. The following were also employed by Mr. Kent during the year: Squire Garner, Gaylor, Perry, Norton, Phineas Carey, Jefferson Garner, Nathan Bond, Charles J. Fox, James Broadie and wife. All these were not within the present city limits, but they were residents in the vicinity. They made the hamlet their place of trade, and assisted in its growth.
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