USA > Illinois > Stephenson County > History of Stephenson County, Illinois : a record of its settlement, organization, and three-quarters of a century of progress > Part 45
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After 1850 the growth of Ridott Township was rapid and somewhat unin- teresting. About the beginning of the decade the township suffered a relapse in the visit of the cholera plague which attacked Freeport and points along the Pecatonica and Yellow Creek. The blow struck hardest at Nevada, near Ridott, which never fully recovered. Unlike Mill Grove, in Loran Township, it was not erased from the map, but the number of deaths was appalling, and most dreadful to contemplate in so small a town.
In 1852, the Chicago and Galena Union Railroad, afterward a part of the Chicago and Northwestern system, came through, and speculators and pur- chasers came to the township in large numbers. But not until about ten years ago did the Ridott farmers have their greatest impetus for development and improvement. This came in the shape of the Rockford and Freeport electric line of the Rockford and Interurban system, which touched the villages of Ridott and Nevada, running parallel with the Chicago and Northwestern tracks. This was especially a boon to the villagers of Ridott for it has enabled them to come to Freeport and do their shopping at any and every time of the day, af- fording quick, cheap, and comfortable transportation.
In addition to the Interurban, three steam railroads enter Ridott Town- ship, making a total of four within the whole area. The Chicago and North- western cuts across the northern end of the township, running through Ridott village, and also Nevada, but not maintaining a station at the last named place. The Illinois Central runs through the central portion from northwest to south- east and through the stations at Everts and Legal. Lastly, the Chicago and Great Western cuts across the southwestern corner of Ridott Township, with its station at the village of German Valley. From German Valley it runs directly southeast to Ogle County, where its first station is located at Egan. From that point it runs to Chicago in an almost direct line.
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The farms of Ridott are in good condition and have a well kept, prosperous look. That is not particularly true of the farms in the northern part of the township, near the river. The farms in this section of the county are very old, and probably more dilapidated and forsaken farm buildings can be found in the region surrounding the State Road than in any other section of the country roundabout. Of course, these farm houses are not occupied and it is only a matter of time when they will be torn down. The new and occupied buildings are of course well kept and neat in appearance. There are also a number of old stone buildings, very ancient, and interesting to the lover of the antique. Among the very old buildings of Ridott Township, and of the county for that matter is the old Hunt place, on the State Road, south of Ridott, formerly used as a Tavern for the Chicago-Galena stages. The place is still occupied by the de- scendants of the original keeper.
As a place for investments in farm lands both with a view to speculation, and permanent residence, Ridott Township is not surpassed. The lands about the Pecatonica River in the northern end of the section are well wooded, but aside from that the surface is most wide rolling prairie, containing lands which compare well in fertility with any part of the state.
RIDOTT.
The village of Ridott was founded in 1860. Nevada, a short distance west of the village site, and now known to the inhabitants of Ridott as the "old town," was the fore-runner of Ridott. When the Chicago and Galena Union Railroad was completed through the township, a station was established at Nevada and a town surveyed and platted. This remained in existence for three years, at the end of which time J. S. Cochran and brother of Freeport purchased sixty acres of land, upon a part of which the present village of Ridott stands. Through some previous transaction, the details of which were always shrouded in mystery, the Cochran Brothers had concluded a. contract with the railroad company, agreeing to grade the side tracks, plat, and lay out the town, providing the railroad station was transferred from Nevada to the new place. On the 10th day of July, 1860, the station was moved to "Cochranville" as the place was then christened, and soon after G. W. Loveland, the Nevada postmaster, in obedience to instructions from the department, moved the postoffice to Cochran- ville, and built the postoffice, the first building erected in the village. The first store was soon after built by the Cochran Brothers, and named the "Farmer's Store." About the same time, Oscar H. Osborn built a house near the track which he adapted to residence and saloon purposes. Ridott has never been a "dry town" since that date. In 1861, Samuel Irvin built his shoe shop on Adams street, James Clark his residence, on the same street, W. E. Moorhouse a house on Jefferson street, and these constituted the village until the close of the Civil war. A few buildings were erected in the vicinity, but the period was not distinguished by phenomenal growth or enterprise.
In the fall of 1861, the name of the village was changed to "Ridott" through the agency of a petition prepared by the residents and addressed to the Depart-
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ment at Washington. The name was taken from the township, and that, in turn, is said to have been named after a clerk in the postoffice department at Wash- ington.
After the close of the war, the growth of Ridott was renewed, and the building of the village resumed. Ross Babcock erected a brick building which still stands on Adams Street, and contains "Ridott Hall," a spacious audience room, office rooms, and two stores. Isaac S. Shirey built a residence on Wash- ington street, J. A. Kerr soon built a house near to his, and later Josiah Deimer, Mrs. Lewis Getchell, Reuben Clark, and Hezekiah Poffenberger erected man- sions on the same street. Henry Gibler built himself a home on Adams street about the same time, and Dr. M. W. Walton moved a building into the village, reconstructed it, and used it for dwelling purposes. In 1867, the 'U. B. church was erected, the only one in the village for many years, in 1869 the new brick schoolhouse was built, and in 1875 the town was incorporated as a village. F. D. Coolidge was the first president of the village board, and the first members were H. P. Waters, Samuel Moyer, O. M. Doty, W. A. Kerr, and J. L. Robinson. W. A. Kerr acted as village clerk, and Samuel Moyer as village treasurer.
Among the archives of the village have been preserved the records of the first birth, the first marriage, and the first death. The first birth was a son to Oscar and Mary Osborn. The first death was that of Elizabeth Leech, and the first marriage was contracted between Brock Mullen and Mrs. Mary Hill.
For many years the village pursued the even tenor of its course, quite like the ordinary country village. But about ten years ago a change was effected, when the Rockford and Freeport line came through Ridott and erected its sta- tion there. The increased facilities for transportation have been taken advan- tage of by the people of Ridott to such an extent that they do practically all of their shopping at Freeport, and now consider themselves as suburban dwellers of the county seat. The village has grown a great deal since the advent of the electric line, and numbers a population of about four hundred inhabitants.
United Brethren Church. The largest and most influential church of Ridott is that belonging to the United Brethren Association. The congregation was organized about 1859, before the village of Ridott was laid out, and was com- posed principally of the residents of Nevada. Services were held first in the schoolhouse on the Moyer farm, later in the schoolhouse on the Waters farm.
In 1867, the present church, a frame edifice 28 x 48, valued at about $2,500, was built on a lot on Adams Street. Recently the whole building was rebuilt and rèmodelled. A parsonage valued at about $1,500 has also been built, next to the church building. The congregation numbers fifty-eight, with a Sunday school of one hundred and six. There have been a large number of pastors connected with the Ridott church since the coming of the first pastor, Rev. James Johnson. All of them have also performed the pastoral duties at the Winneshiek church in Lancaster township. The minister at present in charge is the Rev. J. E. Fry.
Free Methodist Church. The Free Methodist church was organized in 1875, and numbers a congregation of about forty. For some years services were held in the schoolhouse, in Ridott Hall, and in various other locations. Then the present church edifice, a small and unpretentious structure on Adams Street, was
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erected. Rev. Mr. Ferns was the minister under whose direction the charge was organized. The pastor at present officiating is the Rev. J. G. Plantz.
Lodges. Ridott is not a great lodge town. Unlike the villages of the northern part of the county, which are very active in this direction and support a large number of secret societies, Ridott supports very few. The two now in existence are the camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, which was estab- lished about fifteen years ago, and the lodge of the Stars of Equity, which is a comparatively recent organization.
Ridott Band. The Ridott Band was organized in June, 1910, by Professor L. M. Hiatt, of the University of Indiana, who came to the village at that time to reside with his relatives, the McCrackens. The band consists of twenty-six brass instruments, and furnishes music on all occasions where an organization of the kind is called upon to officiate.
GERMAN VALLEY.
Before the Chicago Great Western came through the county, there was a general store and one or two houses at the cross roads where German Valley, or Baalton, as it was then called, was located. With the advent of the rail- road, in August, 1887, the present village was platted, and the town re-christened German Valley.
Probably the least attractive and interesting of all the Stephenson County villages, German Valley is nevertheless the home of a number of wealthy farm- ers, who are descendants of the famous German colony that came to Ridott over half a century ago. The country about German Valley is most attractive, the fields are fertile and productive, and the farm houses and barns are trim and well kept. The village itself is far from lively. There are half a dozen stores in operation, a creamery, a blacksmith shop, and a grain elevator owned by the H. A. Hillmer Co., of Freeport.
M. E. Church. The Methodist church of German Valley is of recent ori- gin. The present church edifice was put up in 1903, the congregation having met about in various places before the building of the church. It is a frame structure, of a modern type of architecture, having cost about $2,500. The con- gregation also owns a new frame parsonage, located across the street from the church, which is worth about $1,500. The congregation numbers in the neigh- borhood of fifty communicants, with a Sunday school about as large. The Rev. Edward Breen is the pastor in charge.
There are no other churches in German Valley, but there are a number lo- cated within a radius of a mile or two, which are attended by the German Val- ley citizens. The German Reformed church is located a mile west of the town, and the Christian Reformed church two miles northeast.
Pleasant Prairie Academy. The German Valley high school, known as the Pleasant Prairie Academy, is located about a mile west of the village, at the settlement known as Pleasant Prairie. The academy is operated by the offi- cials of the German Reformed church, and has been in the past presided over by the ministers of the Pleasant Prairie Reformed church.
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Rev. Mr. Byers is at present principal of the Pleasant Prairie Academy. He is assisted by Rev. Schicker, pastor of the Pleasant Prairie church. The acad- emy offers an excellent course of instruction, covering three years of preparatory work, and four years of high school and academic instruction. A very full course is offered, including Latin, Greek, English, the modern languages, alge- bra, geometry, trigonometry, and the various studies included in the curriculum of an up-to-date high school. The faculty includes a corps of three or four instructors.
German American State Bank. The State Bank of German Valley was or- ganized in December, 1906, and opened for business January, 1907. It is one of the prosperous village banks of the county, and was incorporated under the banking laws of the state of Illinois. The founder and original president of the institution was F. A. Briggs, of Madison, Wisconsin, who resigned after a short term of office, to be succeeded by H. W. Coffman. The bank is capitalized at $25,000. The officers are:
President : H. W. Coffman.
Vice-president: H. Heeren.
Cashier : Louis Fosha.
Assistant Cashier : L. Van Osterloo.
The German American Bank occupies a substantial brick building built es- pecially for its occupation on the main street of the village. It enjoys a large patronage among the farmers of the vicinity.
German Valley also supports a creamery, which is owned by capitalists at the village of Kent, twenty miles west of German Valley. The local superin- tendent in charge of the factory at German Valley is C. B. Ressler.
Unlike most of the county villages, German Valley does not possess any lodges or secret and fraternal organizations. The want is filled by the various church societies, and by the lodges at Ridott, and the neighboring villages to the west and north.
There are half a dozen stores, a large general store owned by N. H. Jansen, a post-office, blacksmith shop, and the usual residences. The population of the village is quoted as two hundred, with a slight increase since the taking of the last census. German Valley is about fourteen miles from Freeport, accessible by the Chicago Great Western from the South Freeport station.
NEVADA.
A visit to the site of Nevada is not necessary to convince the inquisitive historian that the village no longer exists, for the mere name is scarcely men- tioned in these parts today. Formerly it was a place of great importance and was settled very early in the history of the county. Before the propagators of Ridott had brought their village before the eyes of the world, the town of Ne- vada was platted out and promised to be, some day, a factor of importance in county politics. But fate had ordained differently.
Nevada came into existence in 1852, when the Chicago and Galena Union Railroad came through the region. The railroad surveyors as well as the farm- ers of Ridott felt the need of a station somewhere along the route through Ri-
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dott Township, and the services of a surveyor were secured to plat out a town and sell lots. A railroad station, long since disappeared, was built, and the town named "Nevada" after Nevada City, Colorado, where Daniel Wooton, who owned the land on which Nevada was platted, died in '49, en route to the gold fields in California. A post-office was also established, of which William Wright was postmaster, and a number of improvements were made, which seemed to show that Nevada was a coming city.
This was all in 1852. Hardly had the towit felt itself established, when the cholera plague came swooping down upon it from the west and with deadly results. So many of the inhabitants died within one short summer that the population was decreased nearly a half. In 1854, the cholera came again, and with results quite as horrible. The town was so depleted in population that it seemed unlikely that it would ever be able to tide over. However, it sur- vived the shock six years, and an agency other than the dreadful cholera, viz., commercial enterprise and a transaction on the part of a company of Freeport gentlemen, which would today be branded "graft," succeeded in forever ruin- ing Nevada's prospects. These men bought a large territory of land, where the village of Ridott stands today, having previously concluded arrangements with the railroad company that in the case of their platting out a town the rail- road should remove its station, side-tracks, and so forth, to the new site. This was done in 1860. On the 10th of July of that year, the station was removed, and trains no longer stopped at ill-fated Nevada. A little later in the year, in obedience to the instructions of the department at Washington, G. W. Loveland, postmaster of Nevada, moved his postal station to the new town, and as the sun of Ridott rose, the orb of Nevada set. The villagers of Nevada were not loath to leave their old homes, with their memories of the cholera plague, and their proximity to the swamps and river bed lowlands, and a large majority of them moved to the new village. A few remained in the old home, and saw the deserted houses of their departed townsmen go to rack and ruin about them.
Deserted villages are sometimes quite as interesting as inhabited settle- ments. Sometimes, at least, from a historical standpoint, they are even more . so. A visit to the empty plat of the Nevada town site shows some interesting developments within the last few years. The city lots have long been parts of- a farm, and have been untilized as cornfields, but now a transformation is tak- ing place. The town is apparently reviving. A new house has been built on the main street within the last year, and an old mansion which stands back at some distance in aristocratic seclusion, has been re-painted and re-inhabited. It would be strange indeed if the logic of events should make Nevada a village again, with a wakeful community. It may be the case, for the village is easily accessible from Freeport by the interurban, and the lack of transportation fa- cilities, which ruined the town, has been filled by the coming of the new electric line. As yet, the steps which have been taken are too vague to be called hopeful, and the population is a mere baker's dozen, while back from the little handful of houses which border on the tracks stretch the furrowed fields of a thriving farm, and the site which the village of Nevada used to occupy is only marked by the waving blades of corn.
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
EVERTS.
Everts Station, or Stevens Post-office, is the first station east of Freeport on the line of the Illinois Central Railroad. It is a tiny settlement, and of little or no importance since the post-office has been removed. The hamlet contains a few houses, a store, and a grain elevator owned by Freeport capital. Everts was founded when the Illinois Central line came through, although Stevens Post-office was of earlier origin. The village was at one time quite a thriving little community and promised, some day, to gain some importance. The rural free delivery system cut off the post-office patronage, caused the trade of the store to dwindle, and now Everts is a very lifeless spot without much prospect of future resuscitation.
LEGAL.
Legal, or Legal Post-office, as it is still familiarly called, contains a store, and a cross roads settlement of limited dimensions. It is located on the Illinois Central line about two and one-half miles east of Everts, and formerly con- tained a post-office with a large rural patronage. The post-office is now discon- tinued, and the settlement is no longer of any importance. It does not contain any church or school, although school and church facilities are offered in the near vicinity. No regular railroad station is maintained at Legal, and the settle- ment, as a village, is now practically abandoned.
WADDAMS TOWNSHIP.
Waddams township is six miles square, and contains twenty-three thousand and forty acres of rolling prairie. It is crossed by the Pecatonica River, which receives a large number of tributaries within the confines of the township. The most important is Waddams Creek, a small but swift current, which rises in the southwestern corner of the township and flows northeast into the Pecatonica. In addition, there are numerous other creeks and streamlets which cover the township with such a system of water courses that water power is never lack- ing. The township, it is believed, was surveyed by William Hamilton, son of the great secretary of the treasury in Washington's cabinet, who had settled in the lead mine regions at Hamilton's Diggings and who also was an Independent Ranger during the Black Hawk War.
The first settlement was made by Levi Robey in 1835. His nearest neighbor was William Waddams, seven miles to the west. He built a log cabin on the Pecatonica, and began a "clearing," which was the first farm in Waddams town- ship. The same year Nelson Wait, Hubbard Graves, Charles Gappen, Alija Watson, John and Thomas Baker and William Willis joined the settlement. These earliest settlers got their mail and supplies at Galena and went on a two or three days' journey to mill on Wolf Creek. Indians and wild animals abounded in the wilderness and the settlement of the township was accompanied by the usual frontier dangers and privations.
The settlement was made strong in 1836 by the new arrivals, mostly from the east. That year came Thomas Hawkins, John Boyington, Lydia Wait and family, N. Phillips, Pells Manny, John Lobdell, Barney Stowell, Lewis
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
Griggsby, Nicholas Marcellus, John Dennison and a nam named Velie. The first birth in the township was William Robey, son of Levi Robey, September 21, 1836.
Within recent years Waddams township has taken a place of great importance in the politics of Stephenson County. It is one of the few Democratic town- ships of the county outside of Freeport, and, as such, is an interesting factor in all county elections:
McCONNELL.
McConnell is a pleasant little village on the Pecatonica River and on the Dodgeville branch of the Illinois Central Railroad. Besides several stores, hotel, blacksmith shop, two churches, a school house and the postoffice, there is an ex- cellent creamery run by Peter Danielson, an expert butter-maker. The sur- rounding farmers find excellent market for milk. The creamery puts out from nine thousand to twelve thousand pounds of butter daily. West of McConnell, about one mile, is a cheese factory that does a good business. McConnell has a number of fine residences that are well kept.
The old house, the oldest now standing in McConnell, was built by Robert McConnell and is yet in good repair. There is nothing left of the old mill but a remnant of the dam. Two old settlers, who have been citizens for more than fifty years and who know the history of the community, are Mr. A. C. Martin and Charles Graves.
In 1836 John Dennison entered one thousand acres on the present site of McConnell. He had the town fever and his idea was to lay out and build up a town on the Pecatonica. He was joined by John Vanzant and built a saw mill north of the grove in 1836. The next year, Dennison and Vanzant, the latter being a surveyor, laid off the land in town lots and made such improvements as they could in order to attract settlers.
In 1838 Robert McConnell arrived from Pennsylvania and purchased the land and improvements and called it "McConnell's Grove." He established a store at once and brought his stock from Galena. The town did not build up rapidly and the land was secured by the Illinois Central Railroad Company, which sold it to John Kennedy after the best timber had been removed. Kennedy sold lots and farms to settlers, including Charles Webster, George Buck, John Ault, Lewis G. Reed and other about 1855.
In 1880 McConnell had a population of about one hundred and fifty, a hotel, two wagon and blacksmith shops, a harness shop, two stores and received mail three times a week. The school house was built in 1849. The first teachers in the vicinity were Fayette Goddard and Adeline Hulburt, with an average of seventy students for many years. The school district was divided, because of the increased number of settlers, in 1868 and 1871. The present school build- ing was erected in 1889. Talk of building a new three room school is persistent, but the majority of the taxpayers are not yet convinced that they want to build so large a school.
McConnell Lutheran Church. The Lutheran Church was organized in 1850, October 19, with nineteen members. The first pastor was Rev. G. J. Donmeyer.
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Services were first held in the school house, and in 1869 the church building was erected. It was built of brick, 30 x 45, had a steeple and cost $2,200. In 1880 there were fifty members, and G. J. Donmeyer was still pastor. His connection with the church had not been continuous, however, and for a time Rev. J. Stoll and J. K. Bloom had served as pastors. Rev. Mr. Barr is the present pastor.
Lutheran Church. Three miles to the west of McConnell is another Luth- eran Church, which was organized also by Rev. G. J. Donmeyer in 1851 with thirteen members. In 1871 the organization built a church building valued at $1,890. In 1880 Rev. J. W. Fritch was pastor.
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