USA > Illinois > Stephenson County > History of Stephenson County, Illinois : a record of its settlement, organization, and three-quarters of a century of progress > Part 48
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LANCASTER TOWNSHIP.
Next to Freeport, Lancaster is probably the most important township of the county from a political standpoint. It comprises a territory of about thirty-three square miles, or about 17,000 acres of improved land. The township is irreg- ular in shape, being bounded on the south by the Pecatonica River, whose ir- regular and meandering curves make the surveying of the township and the cal- culation of its area a matter of approximation, and difficult in the extreme. The soil is rich and the township contains some of the best farming land in the county. The extreme southern portion is not so valuable, owing to the fact
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that the river is apt to overflow its banks and render a great part of the adjoin- ing fields useless and swampy.
The history of Lancaster Township begins in 1835, with the migration of Benjamin Goddard, his wife, John Goddard, and John Jewell, who came to this county in 1835, and settled in Central Precinct, afterward Lancaster Town- ship. It was in the winter of the year, in the month of December, when the immigrants arrived, and the prospect of the snow-covered fields and the deso- late woods must have been far from heartening. To Benjamin Goddard belongs the credit of making the first permanent settlement in the township, although he was only one of a company which came in 1835. Most of his associates, how- ever, became identified with Freeport Township, which was afterward cut off from the southwestern corner of Lancaster and he alone remained in the out- lying country.
For several years the settlers neglected Lancaster, or, if they settled there at all, did not remain permanently. For several months the newcomers had no neighbors at all except William Baker and Levi Robey, who had "squatted" in Buckeye and Harlem Townships. As far as neighbors in Lancaster were con- cerned, there were none. In 1836, Levi Lucas, Robert Jones, and John Hoag visited Lancaster, but apparently were not pleased with the prospects, for they stayed a brief time only, and then removed to Buckeye and Rock Run Town- ships.
In the same year David Neidigh settled for a short time and then packed up his goods and moved into Buckeye. In 1837 a few permanent settlers arrived. George Hathaway and Robert Hathaway came in and entered their claims in Sections II and 32. In 1838 Elias Macomber settled in Lancaster, and in the same year a Mr. Sedam built his log hut in the far northern part of the town- ship on the town line of Buckeye and Lancaster. In 1839, L. O. Crocker, who has previously resided in Freeport, moved into Lancaster, and later Joseph F. Mckibben and Dr. John Charlton settled in Section 16, Andrew Sproule in Sec- tion 12, very near to the present site of the village of Winneshiek, John Stotzer in Section 24, Samuel Smith, Jr., in Section 24, and later, in 1840, W. B. Mitchell and Jacob and Mycene Mitchell, who took up extensive claims in the northern part of the township.
On March 31, 1836, occurred the first birth in the township, that of Lucy In the' same year the first marriage occurred, Thatcher Blake being united with Goddard. In the winter of 1837 occurred the first death, that of Reagan Lewis. Jane Goodhue.
From 1840 on, the history of Lancaster Township possesses no distinctive features. It was quite the same of Lancaster as of the rest of the county. Settlers began to pour in in large numbers and the land was all quickly taken up. With the completion of the railroad to Freeport, the rural portions of Lan- caster suffered a relapse, as many of the farmers went to settle in the city. Later on this loss was hardly noticed, so quickly were the vacant places filled, and today it is one of the most populous townships of the county.
Lancaster Township has always been the scene of considerable political ac- tivity. It is strongly republican in politics, and many of the Lancastrian farmers
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have filled offices in the county and state. Next to Freeport itself, Lancaster is always looked upon as the principal political hot-bed of the county.
There are no important streams in Lancaster Township, if we except the Pecatonica River, which forms the southern boundary, and is hence not within the township. A small and unimportant stream known as Lancaster Creek rises in Dakota Township to the north, flows south through the eastern part of Lancaster Township and through the village of Winneshiek-thence into Ridott Township, where it joins the Pecatonica River. Three railroads enter Lan- caster Township, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul R. R., which traverses the entire township diagonally from northeast to southwest, the Chicago & North- western R. R., which crosses the extreme southern part of the township from west to east, just north of the Pecatonica River, and the Rockford & Interurban Electric Railway, which runs parallel with the Chicago & Northwestern tracks.
Owing to the proximity of Lancaster Township to the city of Freeport, there are several institutions properly to be connected with the life of the city, which deserve mention within a history of the township. There is, for instance, the Freeport Country Club.
The Freeport Country Club was founded in the summer of 1909 by a com- pany of ladies and gentlemen of Freeport who were desirous of easily and com- fortably enjoying the pleasures to be derived from sojourning in the rural dis- tricts. These adherents of the simple life leased a large territory of land be- longing to the Maynard farm, and thereon erected a small and unpretentious but comfortable and well appointed country club house. The site is most beau- tiful, occupying a considerable extent of hilly lands completely covered with a dense growth of forest. The club house, a rustic one-story structure, is located at the edge of the woods, on the very crest of the hill, from which the distant spires of Freeport are visible five miles away.
The institution is so new that very little has yet been done in the way of im- proving the land. The site offers great opportunities, however, to the landscape gardener. The woods are most beautiful, covering the sloping sides of two hills with a thick woody ravine between them, where the timber is so thick that the sunlight barely filters in between the boughs, and where it is cool and so dark that the matted leaves and grass scarcely dry from one shower to another. Part of the timber has been cleared away, and up on the hilltop a tennis court has been laid out. Swings, garden chairs, etc., have been placed about the club house grounds, and golf links are projected for the coming year.
Forest Park. Forest Park's career begins with the building of the Rock- ford-Freeport electric line. Previous to the building of that railroad there were no pleasant picnic grounds within easy reach of the city. The managers of the interurban conceived the scheme of establishing a pleasure park some- where along their line, and entered into negotiations for the securing of a suita- ble spot. They found a ready co-operator in the person of F. B. Stoessiger, who owns a farm on the River Road about three miles east of Freeport.
The farm of Mr. Stoessiger is well known as one of the most picturesque spots in the county. It lies cramped between the river and the Ridott Road, and is covered in part by a thick grove of trees. The old farm house is an early stone structure, built over half a century ago. It is built close to the high-
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way and clinging to the side of a steep hill. Down behind the farm house is the old spring house, a most interesting landmark and one of the few spring houses left in this part of the country. The water which gushes up from the sand bottom is clear and deliciously cool, and the spring house has become of late years a Mecca for picnickers. In the grove across the tracks from the spring house Forest Park was built. The buildings consist of a few small sheds and outbuildings for shelter in case of rain, a lemonade and pop corn stand, which is occupied only on picnic days, a speaker's stand, and a number of tables and benches for picnickers. The grove winds along the banks of the river, and affords a most delightful spot for picnics. It has become the custom of late ears for a number of Freeport fraternal organizations to hold their annual picnics at Forest Park, and many Sunday school and private picnics are held there as well.
There are also a number of private parks and picnic grounds along the river near the electric line, but none are especially deserving of mention.
WINNESHIEK.
Winneshiek, a village of recent growth, is the only settlement of Lancaster Township. It is located in the extreme eastern part of the township, about three miles south of the village of Dakota, and eight miles from Freeport. Formerly Winneshiek supported a postoffice and many of the farmers of the surround- ing country came here for their mail. With the advent of the rural free de- livery system, Winneshiek post-office was discontinued, but the general store continues to do a prosperous business among the farmers of the vicinity.
The town site is attractive, the group of houses being located at the foot of a rather steep hill, and surrounded by a small grove of trees. Lancaster Creek courses through the village on its way southward to the Pecatonica. Since the removal of the post-office, Winneshiek is deprived of all its former impor- tance as a business centre, but it still has a population of fifty or more, and a store which is doing a steady paying business.
The village supports a church and school. There are also two other churches in the immediate neighborhood of Winneshiek, as well as three or four schools within a radius of three or four miles. The village is best reached from Free- port by train to Dakota, and thence by carriage, or by carriage direct from Free- port, driving through eight miles of the most attractive cultivated land of Ste- phenson County.
HARLEM TOWNSHIP.
Harlem is one of the central townships of the county and one of the most important in every respect. It was settled fourth in point of date in the county, and has always been an important factor in the social and political life of Ste- phenson County.
As far as can be learned, the first settler who came into Harlem Township there to remain permanently was Miller Preston, who hailed from Gallipolis, Ohio. Mr. Miller first came to the county in 1833, en route from Dixon to
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
Gallipolis, by a roundabout route prospecting. The land in Harlem Township looked promising, and he determined to settle down there. But it took some time to arrange his business affairs, at home in Gallipolis in such shape that he could make the move. He was engaged in the tanning business in the Ohio town, and he found it necessary to complete tanning a quantity of hides for which he had made a contract before going on his prospecting tour. So long did it take him to thoroughly straighten out affairs before leaving for the west, that it was 1835, fully two years later, before he set out for his future home. At a point on the Galena stage road he built his cabin and set up his claim. The township where his land lay was then a part of Lancaster Township, and had, only a short time before, been part of the old Central Precinct. Soon the east- ern section of the township was portioned off into Lancaster Township and the western half took its present name of Harlem.
Harlem Township has always been noted for the particular attractiveness of its natural scenery. At the time when Miller Preston built his log cabin, for which he was obliged to hew the heavy logs from the adjacent forests, the coun- try is said to have been surpassingly beautiful. The region from the earliest times was noted for its picturesqueness, and it was this, perhaps, which drew to its confines a large band of Indians. As late as 1840 the Indians were in full sway in the region, and they held a large camp-Winnebagoes and Pottawatto- mies-at the confluence of Richland Creek and the Pecatonica River.
In the fall, after Miller Preston's arrival, came William Baker, who settled in the southeastern corner of the township, and the party with Benjamin God- dard, all of whom settled in the part of the township which afterward became Lancaster. In 1836 Elias Macomber arrived, but he, too, settled in the Lancaster portion. A year later, in 1837, a large number of immigrants came to Harlem Township: John Edwards, Rezin, Levi, and Thompson Wilcoxin, Levi and John Lewis, and others. Levi Wilcoxin soon after built a mill on the banks of Richland Creek on the site of the present Scioto Mills. John Lewis put in the water wheel of the new mill, and among the other newcomers who assisted in the labor of building were: John Edwards, George Cockrell, William Goddard, Alpheus Goddard, Peter Smith, Wesley Bradford, Homer Graves, and John Anscomb. In the month of August of the same year the mill was finished and commenced to run.
P. L. Wright was a newcomer of the year 1838. He settled on a claim pur- chased of William Robey, who had come a short time previous with E. H. D. Sanborn. Mr. Sanborn owned a farm a half mile in area which he subse- quently sold to George Furst for $2,800. In the same year came William Pres- ton, who located his. claim on the banks of the Pecatonica, Mathew Bridenhall, and a number of others. Lewis Preston established his farm in Section 10, and had not been in Stephenson County very long when a little daughter was born to him, the first recorded birth in Harlem Township.
In 1839 Robert Young arrived in Harlem, near the mouth of Cedar Creek in the northeast portion of the township. In the same year Benjamin Bennett came. In February, 1839, occurred the death of Mrs. William Preston, who was buried on the farm of her husband, William Preston, in Section 15. This was the first.death in Harlem Township.
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In 1839 Thomas Cockrell came to Stephenson County, and settled on the east side of the Pecatonica in Harlem Township, near the present site of Scioto Mills, which was for a time known as Cockrell Post-office, from the fact that Thomp- son Cockrell and his relatives held extensive farms in the immediate neighbor- hood. Thompson Cockrell, or "Tom" Cockrell, as he was familiarly known to the people of the vicinity, died only recently, at the ripe age of eighty-six. He was a familiar character in Freeport, and could be seen almost any pleasant day sitting about the court-house clad in his red flannel shirt, for which he was famous. "Tom" Cockrell was proprietor for many years of the Scioto Flouring Mills at Scioto Mills Post-office.
From the settlement of "Tom" Cockrell in Harlem Township the immigrants began to be numerous, and the "modern history" of the township begins. After 1845 there is very little distinguishing about the history of Harlem Township. Soon the railroad came through, the old Chicago & Galena Union Railroad, af- terward sold to and made a part of the Illinois Central Railroad, and immediately land prices in Harlem Township took an upward jump. Nor have they ever gone down. Land in Harlem continues to be most valuable, and in respect of prices cannot be matched anywhere else in the county, although Lancaster, Rock Grove and Buckeye contain farm lands which are the equal of Harlem in every respect.
Harlem Township is fairly covered with a network of streams, large and small. The Pecatonica River flows through the township diagonally from south- east to northwest. It is joined by a mutlitude of smaller streams, such as Rich- land Creek, which is probably the swiftest stream in the county, and has in the past afforded water power for turning numerous mills, Cedar Creek, which flows into Richland and thence to the Pecatonica, Preston's Creek, a small stream which makes its way into the river from the west, and a large number of smaller rills, which join the Pecatonica and its tributaries, mostly from the east- ern side.
Only one railroad traverses Harlem Township, but that railroad possesses two branches. The main line of the Illinois Central runs through Harlem from east to west, and the northern branches, which run to Madison and Dodgeville, leave the main line at West Junction and thence run side by side for about four miles into Buckeye Township, where they divide at Red Oak and go their several ways.
There is but one village of importance in Harlem Township, Scioto Mills. Damascus, a settlement on the road from Cedarville to Lena is partly in Har- lem, but the post-office, now discontinued, was in Waddams Township. Har- lem is one of the most populous of the townships, as it is one of the most im- portant. It contains an area of about thirty-four square miles, and a population of over two thousand inhabitants.
SCIOTO MILLS.
Scioto Mills, formerly known as Cockrell Post-office, an inconsiderable vil- lage of something less than an hundred inhabitants, is the only village which Harlem Township boasts. It is located on the banks of Richland Creek, on the Madison-Dodgeville branch of the Illinois Central Railroad.
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Richland Creek, with its swift current and many rapids, furnishes admirable water power, and a number of mills have always been located along its banks. Scioto has always been a favorite spot for mills, although the present mill has not been running for some time. Levi Wilcoxin built the first mill ever located at this particular spot on Richland Creek, and later Scioto Flouring Mills, with Thompson Cockrell as proprietor, were located on the site of the first mill. Mill- ing has long since been discontinued.
The village itself contains two or three stores, the railway station, a black- smith shop, and a number of residences. There is only one street, but the town is very beautifully situated on a hill sloping down to the creek, in the midst of a grove of high trees. The main business of the Meyers Brothers Lumber Company is located at Scioto Mills, with sub-stations at Buena Vista, and else- where. The last census gave Scioto Mills a population of over one hundred inhabitants, but the number has dwindled somewhat since that time, and com- prises about ninety at the present time.
'ONECO TOWNSHIP.
Oneco township, in the north central portion of Stephenson county, next to the Wisconsin state line, comprises an oblong section of land containing about twenty-seven square miles. The land is fertile and contains not only a large area of farm lands, but a very considerable acreage of timbered lands. ,Richland Creek, coursing through the central portion of the township from north to south, affords water power for a mill at Orangeville, and Honey Creek, which flows through the village of Oneco, in the north central part of the township, formerly turned the wheels of a mill at that settlement.
Oneco township was settled very early-at least two years before most of the townships of Stephenson county. The first settler, according to tradition, was one Simon Davis, who arrived in 1833, and settled in this portion of the section known as "Brewster Precinct." He took up his claim very near to the site of the future village of Oneco, and was soon followed by Andrew Clarno, who es- tablished himself on the banks of Honey Creek. John M. Curtis was another comer of the same year, and he, too, settled in the vicinity of Oneco. Both Davis and Clarno had passed through the region sometime before, and had gone on their respective routes north and west to the lead mines in Galena and Southern Wisconsin. Then, for some unknown reason, whether it was because they were unsuccessful in their ventures, or tired of the mining life and desired to follow the pursuit of agriculture, both of them returned and staked out their claims in Stephenson county.
No settlers came after them for two years as far as can be ascertained at the present time. In 1835, the first representatives of the Van Matre family, who subsequently settled in the vicinity of Winslow, arrived in the persons of Lewis and Jefferson Van Matre. Lewis Van Matre had also passed through the county some time previous on his way to the lead mines, and he too had developed a distaste for mining, and returned to take up farming. His brother, Jefferson Van Matre, came from Ohio the same year. Three other brothers followed them within the next four years : Morgan Van Matre, in 1836, and William and Joseph Van Matre, in 1839.
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
In 1836, the population of Oneco township was considerably augumented. A large migration to different parts of the county occurred in that year, and Oneco did not fail to receive her full quota of new settlers. Nearly all of them settled round about Oneco village: Duke Chilton, Lorin Remay, Fred Remay, Ralph Hildebrand, M. Lott, Jorias Strohm, and a number of others whose names are now forgotten.
The years 1837-1838 witnessed an even larger immigration. A great num- ber of new settlers, whose children are, in many cases, still identified with the ' township, arrived. There were James Young, Philip Wells, Warner Wells, all of whom established their farms at the head of the region known as Long Hol- low, James Howe, Henry Howe, George Howe, Henry Johnson, who settled in the northeast corner of the township, near the state line, Oliver Brewster, John R. Brewster, Ezra Gillett, who afterward erected the Buena Vista Whitehall Mills, Joab Mortion, who settled in the eastern part of the township, Isaac Klecker, whose claim was just east of the village of Oneco, James Turnbull, who later moved to Winslow Township, "Father" Ballinger, whose son Asa was famous as one of the earliest circuit preachers of the Illinois conference, and others ..
In 1838, a tragedy occurred, one of the few recorded in the annals of Oneco Township. Mr. Lott, who had come to the region with his family in 1836, com- mitted suicide. This was the first death known to have taken place in the town- ship, but he was not buried near the place where the deed was committed. As his final resting place is unknown and forgotten, there are some old settlers who discredit the story. As none of them were contemporaries of the traditional Mr. Lott, it is quite impossible to render any decision as to the merits of the tale. Certain it is that the oldest grave in the township is that of William Van Matre's daughter, in Mount Pleasant cemetery, which bears the date 1840.
In 1839 the roll of newcomers included Lewis Gibler, who came from Ohio to Oneco Township, and settled in section 18, the two Van Matre brothers before mentioned, Jacob Stroder, and others. William Van Matre settled in the west- ern portion of the township, near Winslow. Later he moved to Rock Grove, and from there to Mineral Point, Wisconsin.
In 1840 a number of old settlers who have left numerous descendents came to Oneco, among them Michael Bolender, Isaac Miller, Lyman Hulburt, William Hulburt, Nelson Hulburt, John Clarno, Joseph Norns and Seth Shockley. The first marriage is said to have taken place in Oneco in this year. The contracting parties were Henry Rybolt and Lizzie McNear, and the ceremony was per- formed at the residence of Joseph Van Matre, by Squire Gibler. In the same year occurred the death of William Van Matre's daughter, who, as before men- tioned, was the first to die and he burned within the confines of Oneco Township. Of the births in the township, there is no record, nor is there any way of finding out who was the first white child to be born in this section.
There were many drawbacks to the joys of living for the early settlers of Oneco Township. Indians were numerous, and snakes were even more so. We, of the present day and generation, who hardly ever think of either of these pests, can scarcely realize how great and manifest was the danger from both to the pioneer settlers in Stephenson county. The Indians did not make their pres- ence known by war whoops or demoniacal yells at this stage of history. They
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were past that, but they made themselves quite as obnoxious to the settlers in a more subtle manner. For instance, they did not "appreciate the difference between thine and mine," and, what was worse, they did their stealing in the small hours of the night, when there was no opportunity of redress for the white man. But whenever a stray Indian was discovered in the act of helping himself to what was not his own, his punishment was swift and terrible. The occa- sional sights of their unfortunate comrades dangling from the burdened limbs of trees along the road served to dampen the ardor of the poor Winnebagoes and Pottawattomies, and the struggle with them was short lived. With the snakes it was a different matter. Even more subtle than the Indians, they were doubly venomous, and a dozen or more deaths are on record which were caused by the bite of the rattlesnake, or "racer," the massasauga, or the deadly moccasin. They lurked in the tall grass by the side of the roads and rivers, and in among the grain, and more than one unfortunate stepped upon their shining scales and straightway felt their sharp fangs buried in his flesh.
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