History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I, Part 8

Author: Davis, William W
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Pioneer Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 706

USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I > Part 8

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Oh, friend forever loved, forever dear,

What tears have bathed thy honored bier.

Among the soldiers resting here are Eugene Barney, C. G. Slocumb, 1899, Co. B, 147 Ill. In a row with small headstones are buried T. M. Perkins, Co. G, Sth Ill. cavalry; Peter Huguenin, Co. F, 52nd Ill. infantry ; Jacob McDonald, Co. M, 1st Iowa cavalry; Thomas Jackson, U. S. navy; Abner McMahan, U. S. navy. In the cemetery is also the tomb of Samuel Happer, one of the first of the early settlers to pass away.

West of the cemetery is the Albany school, a brick building in two sections. There are 160 pupils. Hettie Slaymaker, primary, 56. Ella Galvin, intermediate, 43. Kathryn Hanks, grammar, 36. High school, three years' course, 25. H. W. Pepper, principal, has had careful preparation at Rockford Business College and three years at De Kalb Normal. In his fourth year, and with the confidence of pupils and parents, is doing suc- cessful work.

THE CHURCHES.

On the edge of a hill in full view of the Mississippi is the white frame Presbyterian edifice with its little cupola. The society was organized at the house of David Mitchell, December, 1839, by Rev. Mr. Prentiss, of Fulton. The members were Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Kilgour, Mr. and Mrs. David Mitchell, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Miller, Mr. and Mrs. John S. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Erastus Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Duty Buck, Mrs. Ivy Buck, and Mrs. Buckingham. The first elders were Samuel Kilgour and'David Mitchell. No regular pastors for a while. In 1843, Rev. Silas Sears began . regular service, and among his successors were Oscar Park, W. C. Mason, Louis Gano, A. H. Lackey, Jacob Coon, J. Giffin, Josiah Leonard, N. D. Graves. The former church of brick, dedicated in 1858, was swept away by the tornado in 1860, and the present structure was placed upon its site.

A congregational church was organized in 1842 by some members who had withdrawn from the Presbyterian. The certificate was signed by James Rothwell, Erastus Allen, Duty Buck, William Efner, William Bothwell, G. Buckingham, Mrs. Ruth Bothwell, Mrs. Hannah Allen, Mrs. Fanny Buck- ingham, Mrs. Dinah Bothwell. Duty Buck and Wm. Bothwell were chosen deacons. Rev. A. J. Copeland began his labors in October, 1847, at $400 per year, followed by Revs. J. J. Hill, Hancock, Cady, Hamilton, Ostrander, Emerson, Macnab. In the meantime, both churches finding the support of separate pastors a burden, agreed to harmonize their doctrinal differences, and unite in a call for a minister, and in July, 1875, Rev. N. D. Graves entered upon his duties. The recent pastor of the Presbyterian church was W. Bryson Smith, who resigned in April. He was student at Lake Forest academy and McCormick theological seminary. Of the seventy-two mem- bers, many are Pennsylvanians, and the Slaymaker family is largely repre- sented.

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

The Methodists began to hold services in Albany in 1840 as part of the Savanna eircuit, preaching before that time in dwellings. In 1840 Rev. Philo Judson was minister, and in 1842 Albany was placed on the Union Grove circuit. In 1845 a small frame building was erected, with Rev. Isaac Searles in charge followed by Mckean, Babeoek, Haney, Hanna, Applebee. In 1853 Albany, Erie and Newton formed the Albany circuit, with a membership in Albany of 172. In 1854 the parsonage was built. In 1860 both church and parsonage were ruined by the tornado. The present brick edifice was erected in 1861 by funds given by the Methodist churches in the East. In 1868 Rev. Barton Cartwright was pastor, and loaned the church $600 to replace the parsonage. Among the later ministers was Rev. Zechariah D. Paddoek, who in 1857 preached at Broadway church, Sterling, dying in Albany at 64 in 1883. Two of his children, Mrs. Slocumb and Charles, live in Albany. Mr. Slocumb in the mercantile business and Charles cultivating some land. Both unusually intelligent people.

The minister in the Methodist pulpit now is Rudolph C. Docnges, who · studied at Iowa Wesleyan University and at Garrett Biblical Institute. His boyhood was spent in Nebraska. There are 180 members, and 100 pupils in the Sunday school. A ladies' aid and a missionary society. As the church is too small, it is proposed to enlarge by adding a concrete front at a cost of $3,000. Before entering the ministry, Mr. Doenges served his country six years in the army, and was at San Juan hill in the Spanish-American war. He is a strong, muscular young man, with abundant hope and vigor. He left the army in 1900. He also preaches at Zion church, eight miles distant, to a small congregation.

THE INDIAN MOUNDS.

A few miles below Albany, down the river, is the largest collection of mounds in the county. They have not all been explored. The Davenport Academy of Sciences have opened some of them, and found skeletons, beads, copper, iron, and mica. The land on which they are situated belongs to farmers, and at the solicitation of Mr. McCartney of the Review, and others, it has been cncloscd, and all trespassing by strangers forbidden. This his- · torical enclosure is for sale, and should be carefully preserved by the county or state as relics of aboriginal activity. What treasures may be here for future antiquarians! Mr. McCartney has a skull in his office taken from a mound. There arc seventy acres in the enclosed land.

ALBANY'S OLDEST MOTHER.

In a neat cottage on the outskirts of the town, the writer found Mrs. Hoobler and her vencrable mother, Mrs. Stagg, who was born April 15, 1817. She was thrice married, her last husband dying 22 years ago. She was reared in Tenncssce, and after several changes her father moved to Illinois, and from White county came to Whiteside in 1835. For a nonagenarian, Mrs. Stagg's vigor is wonderful. Last summer she pieced four quilts, this winter two. looks after the family mending, and can run the sewing machine three hours at a time. Eats and sleeps as well as most persons of sixty. No

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

tremor in voice, no sign of feebleness in her frame. She is a Methodist, her father being a Methodist preacher. She sees no reason for the Lord's per- mitting her to stay here so long.

AN ALBANY SETTLER IN FLORIDA.

In a letter from I. P. Allen, St. Petersburg, Florida, he relates some very interesting reminiscences of his early years. In the winter of 1837 his father moved from Ottawa to Lyndon, leaving himself and sister to live with Deacon Hamilton, while he built the first house in Albany. In a few weeks he moved us over, and I was the first boy in the place. My sister was called the belle. His father was Erastus Allen, and his brothers, George and Isaac. C. R. Rood was the surveyor, and afterwards the county surveyor. He settled in Garden Plain. Mr. Rood taught the first school in Albany, and I want to him when I was but five years old. There was some discussion in regard to the name of the town. As there were several Allens, they preferred Allen- town, but then, as all came from New York state, Albany was selected. A man named Corbin had built a cabin, ten by twelve, at the lower end of what was called the Eddy. Aside from that my father's house was the first real dwelling. It was eighteen by twenty-two. The first presidential election, 1840, was held there. Soon after came Ivy Buck, justice for years, and then his brother, Duty Buck. Also, Cheney Olds with his six boys and three girls. The most of these people came from New York, Cattaraugus county. Then came Capt. Barnes and Uncle Sam Slocumb with a lot of boys.

ON MAIN STREET.

The Albany Review, a weekly of six folio columns, is published every Friday by G. S. McCartney, nephew of the late David McCartney, of Sterling, so long states attorney of Whiteside. It is non-partisan. It was established in 1899, and is the seventh journal started in the town. The others rose. flourished, and fell. Above his desk, Mr. McCartney has an assortment of curios, skull and ax from the mounds, wooden cutting bar of an early McCormick Reaper, ancient pistols, lanterns, ox yoke, hames, candle molds, horns. The circulation of the Review is 1,252 copies, and the home mer- chants evidently make good use of its columns.

First National Bank has a capital of $25,000, and deposits of $132,828, August, 1907. S. B. Dimond is president, and C. E. Peck cashier. Among the directors are James Beach, Louise W. Olds, C. E. Peck, John Woodburn. Four per cent is allowed on savings accounts, compounded semi-annually. Banking hours from 8 to 4.

Albany State Bank, established in 1889, incorporated in 1904, has Charles George for president, and Charles A. Olds, cashier. Four per cent paid on savings and on six months' certificates. Capital is $25,000. Among the stockholders are A. J. Beardsworth, W. W. Blean, E. H. Olds, E. L. Bigelow. One dollar opens an account. Drafts sold on principal cities, and loans made on real estate.

Here is the brick block erected in 1900 conjointly by the Masons and Knights of Pythias, each society having rooms on the second floor. There

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

are seventy-seven members in the Masonic lodge. It dates from 1867. Albert W. Lewis is master; W. H. Smith, senior warden, Frank Phillips, junior warden. The Knights of Pythias have seventy-four members, and the chancellor commander is E. A. Huggins. The lower story of the block is occupied by James Beach with a stock of general merchandise. His residence, lately erected of concrete, is the first of the kind in the town, and a model of good taste.

J. W. Dinneen, well known in politics, is the largest dealer in all kinds of implements for farm and household.

BRICKLAYER AND STATESMAN.

No man in Albany has had a more strenuous career than Dean S. Efner. He came from New York, crossed Rock river at Sterling on the ice in Feb- ruary, 1841, on his way to Albany, his home ever since. He has seen and done much, and likes to relate his adventures. A mason, like Robert Collyer, he built the Happer house in 1848, and the one in which he lives. He studied law, and went to Springfield for examination, where he met Lincoln in 1859. He was in the legislature from 1871 to 1874. Born in 1822, and now in his 87th year, has never spent a dollar on the doctor. 'Mr. Efner is a man of positive convictions, and is ready to express them.

FIRST PEOPLE AND FIRST THINGS.

Rev. Enoch Bouton, Presbyterian, 1840, was the first minister to settle in Albany, preaching as occasion offered.

Ivy Buck, who came in 1837, was the first justice, serving eighteen years. A mason by trade, he built several houses, kept a store, and ran a ferry. Duty Buck was killed in the tornado.

David Bernheisel was the first doctor, who afterwards removed to Utah, and was elected delegate from the territory to congress.

In 1838 Uriah Cook erected the first frame building, and the first brick was erected in 1840 by W. H. Efner. Ivy Buck opened the first grocery in 1837, and MeIlvaine and Happer the first dry goods store in 1840 in a building near the river.

In December, 1839, the village was surveyed for Nevitt, Buckingham, Slocumb, and the other proprietors, by C. R. Rood, county surveyor, and the plot recorded in the Recorder's office in 1840.

Charles S. Dorsey built the first saw mill in 1837, but after four years it burned down. In 1853 Walker, Happer & Co. built a steam saw mill on the river in Upper Albany, and it was destroyed in 1860 by the tornado.

The first ferry between Albany and Camanche was run by David and Samuel Mitchell, 1840. Horse power was used until 1850, when a steam ferry boat was put into operation. The tornado of 1860, Albany's destroying angel, put an end to its uscfulness.

In 1854 McAuliffe started the Herald, which soon passed into the hands of Charles Boynton. He continued the publication until December, 1854, when he removed to Sterling.

A postoffice was established at Van Buren, now Upper Albany, in

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

winter of 1837-38, and Willis Osborne appointed postmaster. In 1839 the name of the office was changed to Albany, with Gilbert Buckingham post- master.

The popular Frink & Walker line of stages opened their route in 1844 from Chicago directly to Albany, having previously conveyed passengers from Galena by the river. The inereased travel lcd W. S. Barnes to erect the Eagle hotel.

The first white child born in Albany was Josephine Davis, daughter of Jonathan' and Phebe Davis, May 18, 1838.

Mrs. Chamberlain says Dr. A. T. Hudson lived for a time in the second story of her briek cottage, 1848. He was a brother of Dr. A. S. Hudson of Sterling.

That ragged shack west of the old Eagle hotel, one report says, was built by a certain Darrow, and that grout house on Main street by Cheney Olds, who came in 1838.

LIVING HEROES OF THE G. A. R.

The post is small, about sixteen, and seattered in town and country. Col. Peter Ege, who is a veteran enthusiast, has given the writer from liis records of about seven hundred, living and dead, the names of the old soldiers residing in the neighborhood :. . W. D. Yopst, 8th Ill. cavalry. Nathan Sypes, 75 years -old, Co. B, 13th Ill. Four years and three months in service, pension inereased; George A. Hill, Co. A, 34th Ill .; W. R. Slocumb, Co. F, 52nd Ill .; Wm. Mitchell, 75, 75th Ill., pension inereased to $20 per month; J. C. Snyder and John Miller, 93rd Ill. Infantry; Thomas Turner, Iowa Regiment; Wm. Tueker, 75 years old, Indiana Regiment; John Wol- senholm, 86, Ill. Infantry; P. Perrigo, Wisconsin Regiment; George D. Quiek, 140th Ill. Perry Langford, 93rd Ill .; Sergeant W. S. Barnes, son of the late W. S., 93rd Ill .; James H. Ege, 93rd Ill., is now at Minneapolis; Robert A. Rouse, Co. A, 34th Ill., is in Minnesota; J. High Woodin, Robt. C. Markee, 34th Ill., are at Quincy; Col. C. Peter Ege himself, 34th Ill., in the service four years and four months; W. R. Lewis, commander of the post, still active at 71, was in a Pennsylvania battalion, fighting bushwhaek- ers in Virginia. The writer met also C. L. Brinker, four years in the signal serviee.

ALBANY A PORT OF ENTRY. A wave of dark Oblivion's sea Will sweep across the place Where I have trod the sandy shore Of Time, and been to be no more. -Hannah F. Gould.

No strangers and few of our Whiteside people, as they tread the sandy slope along the river, ever dream that this' quiet spot was onee gay with life and busy with traffie. No memorial to recall the past but a few weather- beaten tenements that look so sad and forlorn in their desolation. In imagina- tion one ean see La Salle and tlie Freneli explorers in their frail barks row- ing up and down the mighty river.

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

But it is of Albany's palmy days between 1840 and 1860 that we desire now to speak. It was a prominent point on the Mississippi, and stage lines brought their passengers from the east to catch steamers up and down the river. The ferry transported emigrants to Iowa and the territories towards the opening west. The packets on the river made their regular stops to dis- charge and receive freight, as well as their quota of travelers. Farmers hauled their grain and produce to the warehouses on the shore, and returned with lumber from the saw mills to build their houses and barns. Stores were opened and business was booming.

According to the Albany Herald of 1854, the town had then 1,000 inhab- itants, with four forwarding and commission houses, six dry goods and grocery stores, two drug stores, two steam saw mills, one sash factory, and several other business houses. Dean Efner says in 1841 Albany polled more votes than any other place in the county and had much politieal influ- ence. It was the center of trade from all directions.

To many emigrants for Whiteside from the east, Albany was the nat- ural port of entry. The people from New England and New York eame either overland or by the lakes to Chicago, and thence by team across the prairies. But those from Pennsylvania and Ohio embarked on the rivers, and landed at Albany. There they engaged teams to transport them to the other parts of the county. So John Wolfersperger and others came in 1851. Indeed, until the railroad was completed to Sterling in 1855, and then onward to the Mississippi, Albany was the most convenient port through which to enter Whiteside. But the tornado of 1860 with its wide-spread ruin, and the diversion of travel and traffic by railroads, have robbed Albany of mueh of its early prestige. The same sky and lovely landscape, but the hum of busy barter is no longer hcard.

ITEMS.

The completion of the Western Union in 1865 gave Albany railroad communieation. It is now the Milwaukee and St. Paul, giving direct con- neetion with the lakes and the north and Rock Island and Kansas City to the south.

An eleetrie lighting plant is proposed for streets, residences and business. The scheme contemplates municipal ownership. The cost is estimated at $7,000.

The little ferry boat that plies in the summer season between Albany and . Clinton is a great convenience for travelers who wish to meet trains on the Northwestern. Besides it is a delightful sail of six miles on the big river. Two trips every afternoon.

The expenses of the town would make a New York or Chicago alderman smile. At a meeting of the village trustees in October, 1907, after the treas- urer's report was read, a resolution was adopted to the effect that on account of some extraordinary expenditures on streets, the president and clerk were instructed to borrow not to exceed $100 at legal rate of interest, and to execute notes for six months. The village board consists of five trustees and a president.

The population of Albany has varied. In 1854 it was 1,000, in 1877 about 500. and in 1900 placed at 840.

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

The following list is given of settlers in 1837: C. R. Rood, Erastus Allen, Isaac C. Allen, R. C. Niblack, S. Searle, C. Lusk, A. Bergen, P. B. Vannest, G. McMahan, O. McMahan, J. Davis, S. Mitchell, T. Wilcoxson, Ivy Buck, Duty Buck, Jeremiah Rice, Wm. Nevitt, G. Buckingham, S. B. Slocumb, Thomas Finch, John Slocumb, Uriah Cork. In 1838 were Cheney Olds, Dr. Bernheisel, D. Mitchell, Isaiah Marshall, E. Ewers, G. Reid, R. Kennedy, D. Bliss, L. Spurlock, A. Nichols, J. Nichols, B. Spurlock, G. Gar- rett. In 1839 came B. S. Quick, W. S. Barnes, Dr. Clark, James Hewlett, C. C. Alvord.

For a time Upper Albany was Van Buren and the lower town Albany, but the folly of two names was soon apparent and the common name adopted. The towns were platted in 1836.

. DID LINCOLN SURVEY ALBANY? A MYSTERIOUS QUESTION OF HISTORY.

The following article contributed to the Moline Daily Dispatch by J. B. Oakleaf in 1908, we have not been able to verify:

Very few are aware that Abraham Lincoln's service as surveyor were in demand in the immediate vicinity of Rock Island county. He surveyed and platted New Boston in Mercer county in 1834.

Mr. Lincoln's services as surveyor were required in Whiteside county two years later, for he surveyed and platted the original town of Albany, which consisted of seven blocks of eight lots each, 62x124 feet, and in addi- tion one block which was designated as "Public Square." In numbering the blocks from one to seven Mr. Lincoln omitted to number block 5, so that one block of the original plat has no number. The surveyor's certificate is dated June 16, 1836, and the plat was filed for record in the recorder's office of Whiteside county June 21, 1836.

Mr. Lincoln evidently went up the Mississippi from some point near the mouth of the Illinois river, and the boat in which he was a passenger must have made stops at Rock Island, then Stephenson, and while the boat was unloading its cargo Mr. Lincoln may have taken a little stroll in the village.

In his journey up the Mississippi he passed the mouth of Rock river, where four years before he had been in camp preparatory to the march up Rock river, and he, no doubt, was an interested observer of the country from which Black Hawk had been driven, and in passing the island and entering the rapids he had an opportunity of seeing the place where the Rock Island bridge was first built.

In his argument to the jury in the United States court at Chicago in September, 1857, as to the effect of the rapids on navigation in the vicinity of the bridge, he pictured the rapids as he had seen them a score of years before. Any one reading his argument before the jury in the famous "bridge case" will notice that his knowledge was not gained from the testimony of witnesscs alone.

Albany, Ill., was the farthest point north in the state in which Abraham Lincoln's services as surveyor werc required. No doubt there are many people now living in Albany who are not aware that Abraham Lincoln surveyed the original town.

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

GARDEN PLAIN.

These are the gardens of the desert, these The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, For which the speech of England has no name,- The prairies -Bryant.

After John Howard Bryant and his brothers came from Massachusetts in 1831, and settled around Princeton, Bureau county, their famous brother, William Cullen Byrant, paid them a visit. He had much travel over the prairies, and was struck with the virgin beauty of these vast plains, so dif- ferent from the narrow wooded valleys of New England. No wonder he burst into song as a hundred images excited his mind of the flame-like flowers, the breezes of the south. the prints of the buffalo, the mounds of the Indian, the birds and the insects reveling in the summer sun, the sly wolf and the playful gopher, "the graceful deer that bounds to the wood at my approach." Then he becomes prophetic :

-I think I hear

The sound of that advancing multitude Which soon shall fill these deserts. From the ground Comes up the laugh of children, the soft voice Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn Of Sabbath worshipers.

Bryant died in 1878 in New York, but long before he might have looked in vain for his poetic prairies amid the fenced farms of Bureau.

No wonder, following Bryant, the early emigrants were enraptured, and felt as Daniel Boone did when he gazed on the valleys of Kentucky. Abel Parker, with his lively family of six sons and three daughters from Vermont, 1836, was the happy man to build his cabin first amid these charming sur- roundings. Others soon followed, the land was rapidly taken up, farms were opened and the rich soil began to blossom as the rose. Only a small portion of the township is not open to the plow. On the north are the Mississippi bluffs, and here and there a strip of sand or slough, but ditching and labor have brought every available acre to a high state of cultivation.

THE VILLAGE.

Garden Plain, proper, or the "Corners," as it used to be designated, has grown at the intersection of two roads and consists of a group of tasteful residences, two general stores and the usual shops. It has the advantage of the Mendota Branch of the Burlington railroad, which was built in 1871. The school is in charge of Minnie Mouck from Fulton, her second year, with 32 pupils. The village stands almost in the center of the . township. The first schoolhouse was erected here in 1850, a better edifice for graded purposes was dedicated in 1869. Like the other emigrants from the east, they from the first gave earnest attention to the training of their children.

The most conspicuous edifice is the First Presbyterian church. It was

HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY

organized in 1863 with James A. Sweet, C. S. Knapp and Alexander Wilson as trustees. The society really began, as usual, in a schoolhouse at the ‘ Corners in 1850, and the first communion was observed March 24 of that year, Rev. J. J. Hill officiating. A succession of pastors. For a time the pulpit was supplied by ministers in connection with other charges, Albany and Fulton. The present structure was dedicated in October, 1870, at a cost of $4,000. South of the church is the parsonage, built at an expense of $1,750. Both are ornaments and a credit to the community.

Rev. Archibald G. Stewart is now the pastor, coming east from Liver- more, Iowa. He is a clergyman of thorough preparation, having pursued his college course at Monmouth, and his theological at McCormick Seminary, Chicago, 1899. Mrs. Stewart is also a lady of culture, a graduate of Lenox college, Iowa, There are 100 members in the church, and besides the Sun- day school, a Christian Endeavor, Junior Endeavor aid society and mission- ary society. This Garden Plain charge is in connection with that in Newton. One quarter the services in the morning at Newton, and the next at Garden Plain.

In the eastern part of the village is the cemetery, and here lie many of the first people of the settlement: Senior, Baker, Kearns, Stone, Storer, Kilgour, Snyder. Side by side, Charles Rood, 75, and Sarah, his wife, 88, who died in 1904, having long survived her husband. On the tomb of Eliza Ann Short, 1814-1884, "To dear mother." Grounds in good order. Several soldiers, whose graves are not marked with flag or record of com- pany and regiment to which they belonged. Some of the bodies buried here were moved from farms where they were first interred, as there. was no cemetery. The land belonged to the Abel Parker estate, Edwin told the writer.

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History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I, Part 8

Author: Davis, William W Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : Pioneer Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 706

Author: Davis, William W
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Pioneer Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 706