USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Rockford > History of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois, from the first settlement in 1834 to the civil war > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
78
REV. JAMES BAUME.
from Bishop Waugh, who presided over the conference, held July 17th, at Peoria. It was during the pastorate of Mr. Reed that the "Second Methodist Episcopal church" was organized. These were successful years for local Methodism. At the end of his term he reported four hundred members and twenty proba- tioners.
From 1841 to 1853 Rockford had been a part of the Mt. Morris district. In the latter year, the conference, which met at Chicago September 14th, redistricted the work, and the Rock- ford district was formed. Bishop Scott sent Luke Hitchcock to the district as presidingelder. William Tasker was assigned to the First church, and "West Rockford" was left to be sup- plied by Mr. Chatfield.
Lewiston was the seat of the next conference, which was held September 13, 1854. James Baume was sent from this session by Bishop Morris to East Rockford. He served the church two years. Mr. Baume went to India as a missionary in 1859, and remained seven years. He was stationed at Luck- now, where his daughter, now Mrs. Henry D. Andrew, was born. Mr. Baume returned in 1866, and in that year he was assigned to the First church by Bishop Clark. Mrs. Baume died in 1867. Mr. Baume's second wife is a sister of Mrs. Thomas G. Lawler. In 1883 Mr. Baume returned to the foreign field. He first went to Naini Tal, a resort in the Himalaya mountains, and thence to Bowen church in Bombay. He returned in 1893 to Rockford. after having given seventeen years to foreign missionary fields. Mr. Baume died in June, 1897. Circuit Judge Baume, of Galena, is ason. Athisdeath it was said of him : "He esteemed the Chris- tian ministry the choicest, most privileged and far the highest place on earth. and he therefore had that calm and impressiveness which come to a man in the presence of such exalted persuasions."
From the Aurora conference, September 12, 1856, Bishop Simpson sent Hooper Crews to this charge. During his second year the society again swarmed, and the Third Street church was formed. At the conference of August, 1858, which met at Waukegan, the three societies in Rockford were respectively named First Church, Court Street and Third Street. The next conference was held at Galena, in October, 1859, when Bishop Ames reappointed Francis A. Reed to the First church. Mrs. Reed died during his first year. The Swedish Methodist Episco- pal church was organized in July, 1861, during his second year.
74
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
The portraits of many of these pioneer Methodist ministers adorn the parlors of Centennial church. There is also a picture of the First Methodist church. The union of the First church and the Third Street church under the name of the Centennial church, will be considered in a later chapter.
A complet list of the early presiding elders who have served on the districts in which the Rockford appointments have been located, are as follows : 1836-40, John Clark, Chicago district ; 1840-41, John T. Mitchell, Chicago district; 1841-42, S. H. Stocking, Mt. Morris district ; 1842-44, John T. Mitchell, Mt. Morris district ; 1844-48, Cooper Crews, Mt. Morris district ; 1848-50, Philo Judson, Mt. Morris district; 1850-53, Richard Haney, Mt. Morris district; 1853-54, Luke Hitchcock, Rock- ford district ; 1854-58, Rev. G. L. S. Stuff, Rockford district ; 1858-60, Cooper Crews, Rockford district; 1860-64, Richard A. Blanchard, Rockford district; 1864-65, W. T. Harlow, Mt. Morris district; 1864-68, L. A. Sanford (six months), Rockford district; 1864-68, H. L. Martin (three years and six months), Rockford district; 1868-72, W. C. Willing, Rockford district ; 1872-76, W. P. Gray, Rockford district; 1876-80, Henry L. Martin, Rockford district; 1880-84, C. E. Mandeville, Rockford district.
Of the sixty sessions of the Rock River conference, eight have been held in Rockford. The first convened with the First church, July 18, 1849. Edmund S. Janes was the presiding bishop. August 26, 1857, the conference convened in Court Street church, with Lewis Scott as presiding bishop. At the con- ference held with the First church, September 23, 1863, Bishop Scott again presided. October 9, 1872, the conference met in the Third Street church, with Bishop Isaac W. Wiley presiding. The next conference in Rockford met October 13, 1880, in Court Street church. Bishop Hurst presided. The charge of heresy preferred against Dr. H. W. Thomas was considered and referred to the presiding elder of his district. September 21, 1884, the conference convened with Centennial church. Bishop Henry W. Warren presided. Bishop Mallalieu presided at the conference held with Court Street church, September 27, 1887. The eighth conference convened with Centennial church, October 3, 1899, with Bishop Hurst in the chair.
CHAPTER XVI.
FIRST CRIME .- FIRST MARRIAGES AND BIRTHS .- CLAIM FIGHTS.
THE first crime brought to light in Winnebago county was committed in the summer of 1835. The body of a mur- dered man, terribly mutilated, was found in the woods, about two and a half miles south of the settlement. This discovery sent a thrill of horror to the hearts of the pioneers, who began for the first time to feel distrustful. The county had been settled by an excellent class of citizens, and this murder was the one dark shadow of these first years. The crime was at first attributed to the Indians; but this accusation was not war- ranted by their general treatment of the whites. The remains of the stranger were buried in the woods where he met his death. The crime remains a mystery to this day ; but the poor fellow was doubtless murdered by an unsuspected Judas for his claim. The settlers allowed the tragedy to pass unrecorded in local history; and not until forty years later appeared the first published statement of the affair. This first crime was the first death of a white person in the county, so far as known. The second death was that of Sampson George, to whom refer- ence was made in a preceding chapter.
The first marriage was that of Dr. Daniel H. Whitney and Sarah Caswell, and was solemnized by Rev. Seth S. Whitman, of Belvidere, December 10, 1836. The first marriage ceremony within the present limits of thecounty was that of Jeremiah Rob- erts and Harriet Clausen, and was performed December 11, 1836, by Sylvester Talcott, a justice of the peace. The first marriage, however, reported in the registry in the county clerk's office is that of William P. Randall and Miss Delia Driscoll, solemnized February 13, 1837, by William R. Wheeler, a justice of the peace.
Dr. Daniel Hilton Whitney, the first benedict, was a historic ยท character. He was not the Daniel Whitney who figured promi- nently in the early transfers of land in sections twenty-one, twenty-two and twenty-seven, in Rockford township. Dr. Whitney settled in Belvidere in 1835, and was elected the first recorder of Winnebago county, which in 1836 included Boone
76
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
county. Dr. Whitney was tall, of commanding presence, with swarthy complexion, coal-black hair, and eagle eye, and withal the very incarnation of dynamic force. At one time Dr. Whitney was not a believer in revealed religion. Rev. Eleazer T. Ball, a Presbyterian pastor of Belvidere, when on his death-bed, sent an invitation to Dr. Whitney to come and see a Christian die. Upon his brow had come the first breath of the eternal morn- ing, and into his soul the thrill of thriumph. With Paul he could say : "O grave ! where is thy victory !" Death to him was but the kiss of an angel, to waft the gentle spirit homeward to its God. What, to this, is the hero's clarion, though its blast should ring with the mastery of a world! Dr. Whitney died February 17, 1864, aged fifty-seven years. There was much in his life and character that appealed to the love of romance; and. he is kindly remembered to this day. Dr. Jones, a grandson of Dr. Whitney, is practicing medicine at Belvidere.
Melissa J. Long, daughter of John B. Long, born in Febru- ary, 1836, is entitled to the distinction of being the first white child born in the county. The first male child, Ogden Hance, was born in what is now Pecatonica township. George E. Dunbar, son of William E. Dunbar, was bornin 1836, in a little log house situated about one block south of Kent street, on Main. Mrs. T. W. Carrico, a daughter of Benjamin Kilburn, was also among the earliest accessions by birth to the popula- tion of the village.
The protection of land claims was one of the difficulties that confronted the early settlers. Stephen A. Douglas' doctrine of squatter sovereignty was not practicable in dealing with slavery in the territories; and perhaps the renowned and doughty little giant never designed that it should be. But in Winnebago county, during the first five years after the arrival of Kent and Blake, the fact of actual possession was the only title to the soil. The land in this vicinity was not brought into market until 1839; and the Polish claims, which will be considered in a subsequent chapter, did not permit the land in two townships to be opened to sale until several years later. Claims were made upon lands, deeds were executed and money paid for lands that were still in technical legal possession of the government. In some instances several transfers were made before the original grantor obtained his patent from the government. Three facts
77
SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY JUDICIARY.
produced this peculiar condition in the real estate market. The "floats" which were given certain half-breed Winnebago Indians by the treaty of Prairie du Chien, were located on desirable lands by shrewd land speculators, who purchased the "floats" from their wards. These claims weregiven precedence. Another cause was the claim of a Polish count to Rockford and Rockton townships. The third factor was the settlement by the pioneers on lands several years before they were advertised for sale at the land office. Thus this feature of local history is quite complex. Many of the early instruments were not deeds, but simply transfers of claims, or agreements to sell the land when the titles of the grantors had been obtained. These transac- tions indicate the utmost confidence in the good faith of the government, and this confidence was never misplaced.
Under these circumstances, however, trouble among claim- ants was inevitable. There was no golden age in which the brethren always dwelt together in unity. The "transfigured Inenagerie," of which Dr. Boardman speaks, when the lion and the lamb should lie down together, was not fully realized on the banks of Rock river. The law allowed a settler to hold sueli land as he could enclose. His ambition was sometimes greater than his ability to "enclose," which was occasionally done by plowing a furrow around the claim. The first fences were of split rails or sods. The latter were quite extensively built at first, but were soon abandoned. They were made by building the sides of cut turf and filling the middle with earth. When well made, these fences were quite attractive to the eye. Their insufficiency, however, soon drew attention to hedges, and after trials of many kinds, the osage orange was extensively used. The county was not entirely free from that depraved and des- perate class, who usually keep in advance of the administration of justice by the regularly established institutions of law. But these soon found that the moral atmosphere around them rendered their situation not only uncomfortable, but actually dangerous; and they were warned either toreform or emigrate.
Although difficulties frequently arose among settlers in regard to their respective titles to land, there were few of so serious a nature that they were not peaceably and satisfactorily adjusted by the claims committee. This was a sort of squatter sovereignty judiciary, which was established in almost every community. When complaint was made, a meeting was called, a chairman appointed, and a verdict rendered, which was very
78
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
generally respected. A settler who had made what was consid- ered a favorable selection of land, or one that was likely from the growth of the county to become valuable, occasionally found in the morning that a board shanty had been put up during the night on his claim. This cabin would generally be occupied by three or four men, friends of the "jumper," who had come with him to assist in maintaining his seizure. These intruders usually had their shanties ready to put together. The work was done at some convenient sawmill where lumber could be obtained. It was then loaded on a wagon at night ; and by morning they would have the house put up, and be ready to maintain their position by force of arms in what they called their "castle." The decision of the settlers' court, in the matter of "jumping claims," was usually in favor of the man who had a family, and who intended to become an actual settler; and it was always carried out to the strict letter.
An instance occurred in Rockford in the winter of 1838-39, in which the "jumper" refused to submit his pretensions to the determination of this tribunal, but persisted in completing his building upon land which had been previously recognized as belonging to another. The neighbors turned out almost en masse, carefully raised the building and placed it upon ox sleds, and with their teams hauled it into town. On the top of the building sat Mark Beaubien, a young man, who tied together a number of red handkerchiefs into a flaming banner, which he waved in triumph over that portion of the "land of the free." On either side of the cabin, which was now playing the role of a circuit-rider, marched the citizens in procession, one hundred or more in number. Their destination was the residence of George W. Brinckerhoff, who, it was alleged, had counseled the jumping of the claim, and who would be interested therein should it be secured. They quietly deposited their freight in Mr. Brincker- hoff's front yard, and told him they had found his property astray on the prairie; and, fearing some injury might come to it, they had deemed it their duty as good neighbors, to return it to him. They also expressed the hope thathe would exercise police regulations over his wayward property. The citizens then quietly dispersed ; and it is said no further trouble arose from that source.
Another case occurred at Twelve-Mile Grove, in 1844, which resulted in the death of one of the claimants. Two men started at the same time to pre-empt forty acres of land in that neigh-
-
79
MURDER AT TWELVE-MILE GROVE.
borhood. One of them, named Pierce, found on reaching the place that Andrus had forestalled him, and was putting up a cabin. Pierce immediately started for Dixon on horseback. By hard riding he reached his destination the same day, made his entry at the land office, received his certificate, and immediately returned. When he arrived on the tract in dispute, he found thereon the cabin which had just been completed. His opponent had labored all night and had finished his cabin, and was now away at breakfast. Pierce quickly summoned two or three of his friends; and, on the principle that possession is nine points in the law, they entered the shanty, locked the door and awaited developments. When Andrus returned he found that he had been locked out of the cabin, and he immediately rallied to his aid a number of neighbors. Terms of capitulation were offered and refused, and hostilities began. The inmates could not be dislodged ; and as a last resort the assailants tried to overturn the cabin. They had raised one side several feet, when a shot was fired from within, aud they dropped their load. As the cabin recovered its perpendicular with great force, the board which covered the window fell in, and one of the attacking party fired through. Pierce sprang though the window, ran a few steps and fell dead, shot through the heart. The participants in the disturbance were apprehended for riot. One of them wax tried for murder; but it could not be proved who fired the fatal shot, and all were acquitted.
The treatment of a Mr. Brown, who came to Rockford in the winter of 1837, with a large family and a very small purse, has been told by other writers. Brown built a log cabin, and moved from his wagon into his new home. He was thereupon told that his castle must be pulled down, as the claim belonged to Mr. Spaulding, who was then at St. Louis. Mr. Brown was not easily intimidated, and defended his rights. One day a. crowd, under the influence of liquor, besieged his cabin. Brown confronted them with a musket. Terms of settlement were proposed. "If you will leave this claim, we agree to get you a better one, build a house, and furnish you with provisions." The ruse was successful. The terms were accepted, and the barricade removed, when the goods were ejected from the cabin, which was torn down, and the logs rolled together and burned. Brown's offects were hauled into the woods, and his family exposed to the elements on a cold, stormy night, until compas- sionate friends gave them shelter. Upon Mr. Spaulding's return,
80
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
he denied all pretension to the ownership of the claim. Other instances occurred in the county; but as land titles became settled, these controversies ceased.
Jonathan Weldon, who settled at Westfield, was unpopular among the early residents. John H. Thurston says it was a common story in early days that Richard Montague emigrated from New Hampshire mainly that he might be at a comfortable distance from Weldon. Mr. Montague was somewhat dismayed upon his arrival in Rockford, to find that Mr. Weldon was to be a fellow citizen. Mr. Weldon was intellectual and shrewd, though seriously deformed. In one instance he successfully opposed the entire bar of the county when it was proposed to open a road through his land. Weldon did not live at peace with his neighbors; and one night he was taken from his house by a masked party and carried to the prairie, where they made preparations, as he then believed, to hang him. However, after a consultation, they took him to the school house, and left him in the fire-place, covered with tar and feathers. Mr. Weldon, however, must not be dismissed without reference to another phase of his character; and this has been presented by one who knew him well. In a letter to the late Hon. E. H. Baker, from Eureka, California, under date of November 24, 1886, C. A. Huntington, formerly of Rockford, writes: "Without exception he was the most remarkable man I ever knew. A man who never walked a step in his life, yet traveled more miles than any farmer of his time. He settled without a dollar in the grove near Rock river, and took up a largefarm well chosen with both prairie and timber. His children, when young, two sons and two daughters (whose mother was also a cripple and never walked a step in her life), while yet in their childhood so plied their young hands to work, that in a few years under the pru- dent management of parents, both of whom had judgment and tact, that they had fields fenced and plowed, they had a good stock of horses, mules, swine, cattle, poultry, and money in abundance. Mr. Weldon was a man of education, and in spite of all the impediments of frontier life and all the disadvan- tages under which he labored. a cripple himself with a decrepid wife, he educated his children, all of whom took rank among the best settlers of the county, and one, his oldest son, became a clergyman."
CHAPTER XVII.
THE COUNTY DIVIDED .- "MILE-STRIP CONTEST."-MINOR NOTES.
An act of the legislature, approved March 4, 1837, provided for the reorganization of Winnebago county, and the creation of Stephenson and Boone. The latter was named in honor of Colonel Daniel Boone, the first white settler of Kentucky. By this act Winnebago county was reduced to one-half its original size. The reader will find it necessary, in tracing the boundary lines, to have before him maps of Winnebago and Boone coun- ties ; also some acquaintance with the township survey system. Confusion will arise if it is not remembered that the townships in Winnebago county, west of the third principal meridian, are numbered from a different base-line from those east of this meridian. It must also be borne in mind that the ranges west of the third principal meridian are numbered, not as ranges west of the third principal meridian, but as east of the fourth principal meridian.
The first section of this law creates Stephenson county from the eastern portion of Jo Daviess and the western two ranges of Winnebago, as the latter had been organized the preceding year. The next section defines the new boundary of Winnebago. The line begins at the northeast corner of Stephenson, as formed by the preceding section ; thence running east on the state line to the section line between sections five and six, in township forty-six north, range three east of the third principal merid- ian; thence south on said section line to the south boundary of township forty-three north, range three east; thence west ou said township line to the third principal meridian ; thence north on said meridian to the southeast corner of township twenty- six north, range eleven east of the fourth principal meridian ; thence west on said line to the range line between ranges nine and ten east of the fourth principal meridian; thence north to the place of beginning.
The third section of this law contemplated the boundaries of Boone as they now exist, except the mile-strip on the west. This law was seriously defective in defining the boundary lines. The intention of the legislature, however, was obvious, and was
F
82
HISTORY OF ROCKFORD AND WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
accepted until two years later, when the act of March 2, 1839, corrected the errors, which may have been either verbal or typ- ographical. This act also proposed to extend Boone county on the east to include the western range of townships in McHenry county, provided the voters in those townships should so elect. As Boone never extended farther east than at present, it may be inferred that the settlers residing on the range in question voted against annexation to Boone. The writer was once told by the late Judge Lawrence, of Boone county, that about 1846 this question was again submitted to the voters of these west- ern McHenry townships, and that an election was carried in favor of annexation to Boone, but that this expression of the popular will was defeated by a dishonest postmaster, who changed the election returns while they were in his office to suit his purpose.
By comparing the boundary lines of Winnebago and Boone, as defined by the act of 1837, with an atlas of the counties, it will be observed that the eastern boundary of Winnebago was exactly one mile east of its present line. Thus established, Boone was only eleven miles wide. The western tier of sections, which clearly belonged to Boone under the government survey, was denied her and given to Winnebago.
This manifest injustice to Boone county was a thorn in the flesh of her citizens, and finally precipitated what is known as the "mile-strip contest," the most bitter controversy of those early days. The statement is twice made in Kett's History of Boone county that the assignment of this mile-strip to Win- nebago in 1837 was a compromise to conciliate conflicting interests in this county. These "conflicting interests" were probably the ambitions of East and West Rockford for the county buildings. The extra mile-strip may have been given to Winnebago, at the instance of clever manipulators, to increase the voting strength of that part of thecounty east of Rock river.
In 1843 the question of annexing this mile-strip to Boone county came before the legislature. An enabling act, approved February 28th, provided that sections six, seven, eighteen, nine- teen, thirty and thirty-one, in townships forty-three, forty-four, forty-five and forty-six, range three east, should be annexed to Boone, if the voters on the mile-strip should so elect. The strip comprised what is now the western tier of sections in the town- ships of Manchester, Caledonia, Belvidere and Flora, in Boone county. An election was ordered to be held at the house of
88
VICTORY FOR BOONE COUNTY.
Samuel Keith, in the village of Newburg, Winnebago county, May 4, 1843. The citizens of Rockford were deeply interested in the result, although the county seat had recently been re-lo- cated on the West side, and the voters the preceding year had expressed a preference for that side. They were not, of course, allowed to vote. Only those on the mile-strip had a voice in the matter. The election called out ninety-five votes. Fifty-one were for annexation to Boone, and forty-four against it; a majority of seven in favor of Boone. This election added twenty-four sections of valuable land to our eastern neighbor, and thus greatly increased her taxable property. Had this election been held several years earlier, the result might have been a factor in determining the location of the county build- ings. But under the circumstances, it had no such influence. Additional facts upon this point are given in a later chapter devoted to the prolonged controversy over the county seat.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.