USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I > Part 39
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 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
East of St. John's Lutheran church, fronting on Seventh street, was for several years after 1856 a desolate graveyard. The tombstones were ready to tumble. John Arey attended funerals there, but no burials were made after the cemetery was opened. In time the bodies were taken up, the ground reverted to the original owners, and cottages are now on the sitc. The old Sterling House, where Prof. Chaplin's mansion stands, was moved there, and was kept awhile by the late George Wells, a tailor and well-known citizen. His widow, Becky, long survived him.
In 1854 William Hess came from Pennsylvania and put up a combined house and carriage shop on the corner of Fifth street and Ninth avenue, and for thirty years buggies for repair stood in front of his place. Now the buildings are both gone and grass is growing on what appears to be a vacant lot. John Arey speaks of T. Winn's hotel in the eastern part of Sterling about 1845 as quite a large building, but it disappeared very early. Nelson Mason and his brother, Carlyle, had a small blacksmith shop near Isaac Bressler's store, in the middle of the prairie, but only for a short time. Carlyle went to Chicago, started iron works, and grew rich.
340
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
And where is the Sunday tabernacle? Where go the figures when they be "rubbit" out? asked the Scotch lad of the master. On Monday evening, March 14, 1904, closed the most remarkable series of religious meetings Sterling ever saw. For nearly five weeks Rev. William A. Sunday spoke in a wooden tabernacle to several thousand people, afternoon and night. It was the sensation of the city, and men, women, and children crowded to the plain, felt-covered structure. An immense choir sang the songs of Zion. The number of converts was placed at 1,647. Every church received large accessions. On the conclusion of the meetings the tabernacle was removed.
1
Long will the tale be told, Yea, when our babes arc old.
As the stranger gazes at the imposing brick tower of the First Congre- gational church on Second avenue and Fourth street, he will never know that for over thirty years a generation of excellent New England people met Sunday after Sunday for worship in the familiar white frame on the same - site.
Where is my Highland laddie gone?
Where is Wallace Hall, from whose rostrum Wendell Phillips, Horace Greeley, and Henry Ward Beecher addressed admiring audiences, and later Farwell Hall, on whose platform Camilla Urso and Wilhemj drew their bows, and Ingalls and Dr. Swing uttered their messages?
For twenty years the Agricultural Fair was the yearly jubilee of town an country on Sanborn's forty-acre pasture along the river. Several good wooden buildings were erected in the shape of a floral hall, stables, amphi- theater, and other requisites. Although the display of vegetables and stock was never very attractive, the week was always anticipated with pleasure because the fair was a common meeting ground of friends from all parts of the county. But the weather man so often sent rain and mud that week that the profits failed to pay the premiums, and when Morrison started her fair the Sterling show died a natural death. The visit of Grant and Logan in 1880, widely advertised by A. A. Terrell, drew an enormous crowd, and was the third illustrious occasion in the history of Sterling.
Gone is that wing dam built by Wyatt Cantrell in 1838 at the foot of Walnut street. It was made of loose stones thrown up in the river, making an angle of forty-five degrees with the bank. For ten years people from Whiteside, Henry, and Bureau brought their grists to this primitive mill, as it was the only one in the country. Cantrell was a Kentuckian, coming to Illinois in 1812 and settling in Sangamon until he removed to Whiteside in 1836. He died in Kansas, but his body was brought to Sterling, and his tomb may be seen in Riverside, with other of his compcers of the thirties.
THE CITY ORGANIZATION.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,' The post of honor is a private station .- Addison.
V
Sterling was organized as a city under a special charter granted by the legislature, 1857. At the first election held in April, Lorenzo Hapgood was
-
--
GOVERNMENT BUILDING, STERLING
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
341
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
chosen mayor, John Pettigrew and D. H. Myers, aldermen of first ward; Henry Bush and D. R. Beck, for second; James Galt and B. G. Wheeler, for third. At council meeting L. K. Hawthorne was made city clerk; E. N. Kirk, city attorney; W. S. Wilkinson, surveyor. The charter was amended in 1869.
From Lorenzo Hapgood to John L. Janssen, elected in 1907, the city has had thirty-nine mayors. In the long list appear the names of several old and prominent citizens. Most were chosen for one term, but a few were in office for the second or third term: Hapgood, Nelson Mason, Coblentz, J. G. Manahan, B. C. Church, C. Burkholder, J. R. Johnson. In 1866 was the temperance issue, T. A. Galt, mayor. Generally, the contest turns on personal popularity. Of the past mayors several yet survive the strain of office and live in the city: Street, Green, Lawrence, Hershey, Burkholder, Miller, Johnson, Bell, Lewis. Bennett lives in Minneapolis and Patterson in Kansas City.
THE TALE OF THE POSTOFFICE. By John D. Arey.
He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spattered boots, strapped waist, and frozen locks, News from all nations lumbering at his back .- Cowper.
At the time of the earliest settlement of Rock River rapids the nearest point where the people could receive their mail was Dixon's Ferry, where the mail route from Peoria to Galena crossed Rock river, and a postoffice was established. 'The first postoffice was opened within the limits of the present city of Sterling in 1837, and was kept in a store on River street, on the west side of Chestnut street, in the town of Chatham. River street is occupied by the C. & N .- W. railway and Chestnut street is now Fourth avenue. John D. Barnett was postmaster. The next location was on the south side of Fourth street, between Main and Fulton streets, in Harrisburg, now Sixteenth and Seventeenth avenues. Daniel D. Guiles was postmaster. Eliphalet B. Worth- ington was next appointed, and kept the office in his residence, on the south- cast corner of Third and Main streets, now Third street and Sixteenth avenue. During his term, which was about twelve years, the towns of Harrisburg and Chatham were united, and he purchased block 52 on the east side of Broad- way and built a residence, where he kept the office to the satisfaction of all parties. Lewis D. Crandall was Mr. Worthington's successor, and at the time of his appointment kept a small stock of groceries and notions in the north- east room of the courthouse, where he kept the office, until he finished the building now standing on the northwest corner of Third street and Eighth avenue, into which he moved his store, and from there the office was taken to a store across the street in the west part of the brick front now standing on the south side of Third street, east of the alley, between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Bradly Nichols suc- cecded Mr. Crandall, and during his term the office was moved from the brick front to the rear room of a building occupied as a bank on the north- east corner of Third street and Sixth avenue. This room was not a suitable_
342
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
place for the office, and a building was erccted for it on the northwest corner of Third street and Fifth avenue. This building was the first one erected for a postoffice, and in it were put up the first boxes for rent to the patrons of the office. Joseph Hutchinson, who kept a store in the building now standing on the north side of Third street, the fourth east of Avenue A, was next appointed by President Buchanan, and moved the postoffice into his store. The people, with the exception of a few that were interested in the development of the new western part of town, were so incensed at this action they signed an order authorizing Charles Ginkinger, who was a deputy under the former postmaster, to go to Hutchinson's store and get their mail, take it to the old office and distribute it. In a few days the postoffice department sent an official to Sterling, who told the parties they could not have two post- offices in one town. This made the people furious, and the leading citizens to the number of about forty met in the old part of the town and marched in a body through the middle of the road, where the mud was three or four inches in depth to Hutchinson's store for their mail, and while it was given out to them they occupied themselves by stamping the mud from their boots, and some were careless enough to get up on the counters to do it. This demonstration caused Mr. Hutchinson to promise the people, if they would wait until he could put up a building on the hill, he would move the office into it. He immediately erected a building on the north side of Third street, on the west side of the alley between First and Second avenues, where the postoffice remained through the rest of his term and through the term of L. King Hawthorne, who was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as Mr. Hutchinson's successor. Mrs. Emily J. C. Bushnell was next appointed by President Lincoln. She moved the office to a building now standing on the east side of First avenue, the third north of the Germania Maennerchor. Mrs. Electa E. Smith, who kept the office in the same place, was Mrs. Bush- nell's successor. During Mrs. Smith's term Thomas A. Galt and George S. Tracey erected the Academy of Music block, and fitted up the north room for a postoffice, which was occupied by Mrs. Smith during the latter part of her term, in which place the office remained until the present postoffice was built and opened for the first time, Oct. 1, 1905. During the time the office was in the Academy of Music building the following persons kept it, in the order named: Mrs. Electa E. Smith, Charles M. Worthington, William A. McCune, Thomas Diller, John R. Johnson and Thomas Diller, who moved the office into the government building. Mr. Diller's successor is James P. Overholser, the present postmaster. Mail delivery by carriers was estab- lished in the term of W. A. McCune, and rural mail delivery in the second term of Thomas Diller.
In addition to Mr. Arey's excellent sketch we take some items from an article read by George O. Stroup at the postoffice banquet in 1907. It seems that Nelson Mason carried the sacks from Dixon to Sterling, on a horse in summer and on a sledge in winter. He received the princely com- pensation of eight cents a mile. The postoffice in Barnett's store was in a box kept under the counter, and there were only a dozen families to receive mail. As there were no postage stamps, the postage, 25 cents, had to be paid
343
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
by the person calling, and if lie had no moncy the letter was either held ' until he borrowed it, or the amount was charged to his account.
The new government building, erected in 1905 at a cost of $45,000 is a handsome onc-story structure of brick and stone, on the corner of Fourth street and Second avenue, on the west part of the old Nelson Mason prop- erty. The business of the office has increased rapidly. At the close of the fiscal year, June, 1907, the total receipts were nearly $23,000 and the ex- penses $14,000, including salaries and other outlay. The amount of money passing through the office in the form of money orders was $110,000. In 1894 the receipts were only $13,000, almost doubled in thirteen years. In- cluding the janitor, there are thirty-five people connected with the office.
The Sterling postoffice for the calendar year 1907 made the greatest gain in its history, the receipts showing a gain of twelve per cent over the year 1906. The receipts for the year 1907 were $24,000, while the year 1906 the receipts were $21,500, or a net gain of $2,500. The receipts of the Chicago postoffice during the same period showed a net gain of eight per cent.
P. O. ACCOUNT BOOK.
Before the writer lies a little book bound in leather, eight inches by four, which was kept by Mr. E. B. Worthington in part of his administration of the early Sterling office. He was appointed during Harrison's term, 1841, and this book appears to be a sort of cash book or record of moneys received for letters or merchandise. Reading one page recalls a host of old Sterling names: H. Whipple, pills, 50 cents, quinine, 25 cents; Hugh Wallace, 5 cents; Luther Bush, letter sent, 121/2 cents; Col. Wilson, sent, 37.1/2; Van J. Adams, 183/4 ; L. H. Woodworth, 1834; Capt. Woodburn, 1834; Albert S. Coe, 121/2 ; Dr. Pennington, 25; N. Mason, 25; John Galt, 25; Carlisle Mason, . 27; R. C. Andrews, 10; Jesse Penrose, 121/2. Some names occur over and over. In fact, the patrons of the office were easily counted. Rev. George Stebbins, the minister, appears frequently, and Hugh Wallace, M. S. Henry, lawyers; R. S. Wilson, county clerk, and the Galts, John, Maria, James, Mary, and then a mixture, Asa Emmons, Samuel Albertson, Joel Harvey, Kilgore, De Garmo, Manahan, Crawford, Brewer, Moore, Platt, Dippell, Wells. A big business in pills and quinine. No doctors or drugs and plenty of ague and bile, and the doses had to be sent by mail. So we find frequent receipts of 50 cents and a dollar for medicines. Accounts were kept of money sent for papers. Charges occur like these: March 21, sent one dollar for Dollar Newspaper for S. Albertson; January 1, sent one dollar for Chicago Democrat for Isaac Merrill; in January, Dr. Pennington sends one dollar to Greeley and McElrath for New York Tribune; in March, sent one dollar to Wilson & Co., for Amer. Book of Beauty for James Galt; Thomas Galt sends 25 cents for Youth's Friend, Philadelphia; February, R. C. Andrews sends one dollar for Prairie Farmer.
This fascinating nugget of old postoffice operations runs from 1843 to 1847. The book was in possession of Jesse Johnson, grandson of Mr. Worth- ington, and given by him to the W. Co. Historical Society. Accompanying it is a thin ledger in which the dates run from 1846 to 1850. According to
344
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
1
this some things were charged. That is, under each name is a Dr. account of various items of postage for letters and papers not paid as received. For instance, after Noah Merrill's is footed up on the Dr. side for journals and letters he has credit on the Cr. side by cash and on April 8, 1850, "By use of team and boy for half a day, one dollar." It would make a modern city P. M. grin to glance through the closely written charges of 14 and 25 cents to be balanced on the other page by occasional payments of cash, or sometimes in trade, as so many bushels of wheat or so many pounds of salt pork. Verily, the world moves, and the days of our grandmothers have gone.
Better fifty years of Europe Than a cycle of Cathay.
Note .- The writer is in possession of a fact never published. When Joseph Hutchinson received the nomination for postmaster it fell like a thunderbolt upon the people, as he was a stranger recently from the east, and it was not known that he was an applicant for the office. The mystery was soon explained. Mr. Hutchinson was from Pennsylvania, President Buchanan's state, and they were personal friends, so that it was perfectly nat- ural for Mr. H. to ask for the office and the President to grant it. So Col. Wilson was made paymaster by President Lincoln during the war, because he and Mr. Lincoln were in the legislature together and belonged to the Long Nine who moved the capital from Vandalia to Springfield.
The permanent improvement of the streets was begun several years ago ' and is steadily prosecuted as finances permit. A large extent of Third, Fourth and Locust streets is pavcd with brick, and many of the other streets and avenues curbed and macademized. Sewerage will soon be installed all over the outlying districts. A long, narrow park in the center of Broadway, at- tractive with flowers and shrubbery in place of the rank growth of weeds so long a disgrace, adds much to the beauty of that fine thoroughfare, destined to become one of the fashionable drives of the future city. A Euclid avenue or Drexel boulevard.
GROUP OF PIONEER MOTHERS.
I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away .- Couper.
During my first visit to Sterling in 1851, in company with my father, we made our home with Hugh Wallace, a Cumberland county lawyer, who had married Mary Galt of Lancaster county. They were both close friends of my father, so intimate, indeed, that he was invited to "stand up" at their wedding. They lived in the old fort, a one-story frame building near the present spacious mansion of Mrs. Randolph on West Third street, built by Mr. Wallace, as he became prosperous.
A delightful visit of a weck. Both were genuine western hosts, doing everything for our comfort. Mrs. Wallace was a thorough housekeeper. How we ate and how we slept. A bountiful table. This hospitality continued to her death. During licr whole life she was a good Samaritan, another Dorcas, ever ready to make sacrifice for her own family or her neighbors. The Wal-
345
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
lace home was a Mecca for every eastern visitor. A woman of wonderful self-control. Although trouble after trouble came into her household, her face always wore the same gracious expression.
But an old age, serene and bright, And lovely as a Lapland night, Shall lead thee to thy grave.
Mrs. Maria Galt belonged to the Buyers family, who had lived for gen- erations on a tract of land near the Gap in Lancaster county, deeded by the Penns.
The farm of John Galt, still in possession of the family, lies along the Elkhorn, near Galt station west of Sterling, and here in 1851 I first saw Aunt Maria, whose kindness was so often enjoyed after my removal to the west. Deer were then about, and I remember a pet fawn running in the front yard.
Aunt Maria was a woman of intelligence and refinement, somewhat re- tiring, finding her highest enjoyment in her own household, not caring to visit, but always delighted to welcome her friends at her hearthstone. Her last years were spent in Sterling, and even at ninety she found great pleasure in rising early to prepare the family breakfast.
Mrs. Mason's maiden name was Barnett. Nelson Mason, her husband, was a Scotchman from Paisley. She was a sister of the first Mrs. Pennington. That substantial dwelling between postoffice and park, constructed of stone from Rock river, was erected by Nelson Mason about 1855, the same year the Wallace mansion in the west end. Mr. Mason was mayor during the Civil war. A man of excellent judgment.
My acquaintance with the Mason family began in 1857. It then con- sisted of the father and mother and the two daughters, Emily and Ann, an older sister, Mrs. Bross, living in Chicago. Never in all my experience have I entered a home where the welcome was so spontaneous, so cordial, from every inmate of the circle. The soul of good cheer pervaded the very atmosphere. The memory of those calls is very fragrant, and I sigh to think that every member of that charming group is no longer among the living.
O for the touch of a vanished hand, The sound of a voice that is still.
Mrs. Mason was one of the most genial persons I have ever met. Her laugh was contagious. Let me change one word in a familiar quotation :
-A merrier woman, Within the limit of becoming mirth, I never spent an hour's talk withal.
The death of Emily in her prime was a blow to the fond maternal heart and ever afterwards there seemed to be a touch of sadness in the old joyous greeting.
Only a vestige is left of the neat Worthington cottage on Broadway, which, with its barberry hedge, was once a familiar landmark. This was the postoffice in 1851, and here we came for our letters from the east. Of a
346
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
large family, Anna, Mary and Edward are dead, Mrs. Norwood in Chicago, and Josephine, wife of C. C. Johnson, Esq., of Sterling, only remaining. The father, Eliphalet, was a native of Connecticut.
Mrs. Worthington was a delicate woman, a neat figure, and always wore a curl in front. She received a good education in her Philadelphia home and was ready to give her unsophisticated neighbors the benefit of her accom- plishments. She opened a school, and also taught a class in painting. Like Titian, who used his brush at ninety-nine, Mrs. Worthington never lost her love for art, and in her old age, living alone, the visitor would find her busy at some new painting which she would explain with the genuine enthusiasm of an artist.
Both Elizabeth Kilgour and her husband, Ezekiel, came from Cumber- land county, Pennsylvania. She was a Graham, a famous name in Scotch genealogy, and the sturdy spirit of the clan survives in her descendants today. They came in 1837, and Mr. Kilgour died in 1848, leaving her the care of . a growing family. She was equal to the emergency, and trained them well A woman of decided convictions. One physical feature which I recall was her voice, which continued loud and strong even in old age.
Could her children speak, they might arise and call her blessed, for they all led excellent lives. Two were soldiers, Ezekiel dying in the Nashville hospital in 1862. William, of the Seventy-fifth Illinois, who beeame general, was severely wounded, participated in all the dreadful battles of the Tennes- see campaigns, and saw more desperate service than most of our veterans. For a long time in front of his residence on the Pennington road he had a board labeled "Chickamauga Street."
Mrs. Col. Wilson, as she was generally called, was Eliza Jane Kincaid, of a prominent Kentucky family. John Kincaid, who died in 1873, was an intimate friend of Henry Clay. Of all our pioneer mothers, Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Wilson saw most noted people, because their husbands were in politics. While Mrs. Wallace met Stephen A. Douglas and U. F. Linder, Mrs. Wilson knew Lincoln, Edwards, Herndon and the worthies of early Springfield.
Mrs. Wilson was the last of the pioneer mothers of Sterling to pass away and one of the oldest. She died in March, 1907, and had she lived to the following May, would have been ninety-two. A woman of remarkable firm- ness and composure. A placid brow amid all the trying times of a long career.
Through all the changing scenes of life, In trouble or in joy, The praises of my God shall still My heart and tongue employ.
SOME EARLY DOCTORS.
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor, too .- Shakespeare.
Dr. A. S. Hudson was in Sterling in 1856, and perhaps several years before. Some prominent families held him in high esteem, and were not willing to be sick under the care of any other physician. Poor Mrs. Coblentz
347
HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
was very enthusiastic in his praise, and would quote his opinions on all oca- sions. A slender man with long beard.
He was scientific, studious, read much in his profession, and had the bearing of a scholar. For awhile our early library was stored in his house. He built the dwelling now occupied by Ed Bowman. Across the street was Kirk, now the Wash Dillon property, and over on Second street was Sackett. I believe these men had in view a select corner of professional aristocracy, an intelligent Four Hundred.
All bright fellows and all gone. It makes onc sad to recall their shattered hopes. A home course of lectures was organized just before the war, and Dr. Hudson was one of the speakers. His subject was "Correlation of Life and Death." The style was learned, a little above the average Sterling mind of that day. The lectures were given in Commercial block, just west of the burial case factory. On leaving here, the doctor finally reached California, where he died a few years ago.
As my older readers know, Sterling was once the happy county seat, and the courthouse stood in the block west of Broadway, between Third and Fourth. It was the center of business, and the best storehouse near it is the brick block now occupied by Frank Bowman on Third. In 1856 in this building I found a drug store under the firm of Anthony & Royer. It was soon afterwards dissolved by mutual consent.
Dr. M. M. Royer came from Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, and at- tended medical lectures, I think, in Philadelphia, then, as since, the resort of students. Like Edinburgh abroad. He was a brother of the late George Royer, farmer east of town, whose widow still resides in a neat cottage on Fifth street with her daughter Tillie. The face of John Royer, a son, who married Bertha Seidel, is daily seen at the counter of the Sterling National Bank.
Until his retirement a few years ago and subsequent residence in Chicago and his death at that place, Dr. Royer was in constant practice. Always ready to respond to call of suffering, rich or poor. Willing at any hour of the night. His saddle bags in the H. S. tell of many a weary horseback ride over our early swampy roads when a buggy was impossible. His wife was Lizzie Hoover, and she and two daughters, Emma and Libbie, live in Chicago. No better physician in diseases of women and children.
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.