USA > Illinois > Will County > History of Will County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 11
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The winters in the early sixties were very severe and the snow falls heavy. Coal and patent heating plants were un- known. It was go to the woods and bring home your fuel. So severe was one winter that stock was known to freeze while in their stalls. Men went out and brought in whole coveys of quail and prairie chickens frozen stiff. Women went about their house work with heavy woolen shawls tightly drawn over their shoulders while men sucked away with a vengeance at their corn cob pipes trying to keep ice from forming on the end of their noses. By the way, tobacco came packed in barrels, and was not made of cabbage leaves and beet tops.
Modern labor saving implements had not appeared. It was cradle your grain and scythe your grass. The old water jug al- ways went along with the scythe, and how refreshing the water
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was. To take a drink one inserted his two first fingers of the left hand in the handle of the jug, swung the jug on to the elbow, raised it skyward, and no sweeter music was ever heard than the gurgle of that water as it went out of the jug and down a parched throat. The old fashioned flail is now a rare curios- ity. Right well do I remember a terrific whack I received on my head while trying to handle this crude threshing machine. Farmers were up before daylight and often labored long into the night.
After the close of the civil war, shanties began to appear here and there, and during the seventies the last open section of land was occupied and worked. This section was in the central southern part of Will Township and was owned by Conrad Tatge, once county clerk. Before the sections were closed stock had the choicest of grazing and the farmer had his pick of the richest grass for winter feed. In that early day a queer custom developed. Any settler could go out into the open spaces in early summer, select and cut around the grass he desired for later use. There was an unwritten law kept sacred among early settlers that the grass chosen belonged to the one making the mark around it. That law was never vio- lated and can be held up today in strong contrast with the laws written and never kept. As grain was hard to market and the price low, farmers took to stock raising. As the grazing ground disappeared the herder appeared. His business was to round up early in the spring, all the young stock into one great herd, drive it down into the big swamp lands near Mom- ence and there let them graze until frost demanded that they be driven home. The total cost per head for the entire season was one dollar and twenty-five cents. The cattle came home in good condition, were grain fed for about two months and then shipped to Chicago to market. East of Peotone in 1871, some of the best prairie farm land in Illinois could be bought at sixteen dollars per acre. Within the last few years some of this
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land has sold under the auctioneer's hammer at two hundred and fifty dollars per acre.
Referring back to the early days, the prairie was dotted with numerous ponds and sloughs, the home of millions of mosqui- toes. Malaria and ague combined made life for many scarcely worth the living. However, soon there came a wonderful remedy in the shape of tile draining. Under it the ponds dis- appeared, sloughs became rich farm land and ague and its attendant evils were destroyed. Upland prairie hay, that choice food for stock, is known in Northern Illinois no more. Yet, at one time a companion and myself standing on a small elevation East of Peotone counted over two hundred large stacks of this choice hay, all cut from land that had never known a plow.
Eastern Will County was first settled by the pioneering Yan- kees. A little later came English, German, and Irish settlers, the Germans finally outnumbering all other nationalities, and to- day their descendants are there, wealthy, law-abiding, staunch American citizens. Crete was where the first torch of civiliza- tion flared forth in Eastern Will County. Here came the hardy Easterner after a long tedious journey by ox and covered wagon, and here he and his posterity remained and are known to this day.
In 1869, Peotone was a little one street station. Its chief attraction was saloons, beer kegs, flies, and mosquitoes. A grain market was established and the farmer began hauling his products to town. Soon however, he discovered that when the grain was delivered the driver oftimes proceeded to get glori- ously drunk. This fact soon changed a lot of the marketing to other points. Then, all at once like a flash of lightning from a clear sky, came a temperance wave into Peotone. City election followed close, and upon count of the ballots cast a majority of one was found in favor of temperance. That ballot was the
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magic wand that brought forth a new Era. During the seven following years, filth, degradation, and pauperism disappeared. The people became inspired with a new and higher idea. Their great aim was to make a model city out of their home town. This was accomplished, for today there is not a city in Illinois of like population that ranks higher in schools, churches, fine buildings, and staunch and worthy citizens. Who has not heard of Peotone, the spotless town? To be a resident of Peotone gives one a high class rating throughout the length and breadth of Illinois.
Another early attraction, long since torn down, was the tall towers erected at the time Illinois was being surveyed. One stood south of Monee, another in Washington Township, one in Green Garden Township, and a fourth near Manteno. The old Dutch wind-mills, one in Monee, one near Washington, one in Bremen, and one in Peotone, were visible for miles around. The one in Peotone, minus its long arms, is still grinding away but under a new power. These mills were of Holland type and their giant wings revolving in the sky seemed to be living factors beckoning civilization to the rich prairie lands of Eastern Will County. The towers, the grist mills, and the early settlers are no more, but some of the progeny of those hardy pioneers still live, an honor to their parentage and the county in which they live.
Although much is left unwritten, yet I would not close this article without paying tribute to the "boys in blue" who rushed to the defense of our flag in '61. Every cemetery in Eastern Will County contains honored graves where sleep these valiant ones. Others died amid the horrors of Andersonville, and other southern prisons. Those that came home helped to develop the country ere they too laid aside life's burden. The once strong G. A. R. Post at Peotone is no more. In all reverence let us un- cover as the flag rests at half mast.
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Custer Township came into existence in 1875, when it was separated from Reed Township, which had included all of that part of Will County which is now included in Reed and Custer townships. The first settlement within the present bounds of this township was made in 1834 by Thomas Hatton and Richard Yates. The region from the present village of Custer Park eastward, along the Kankakee River was occupied for many generations by the Indians who had towns in this region. Far- ther up the river beyond the boundary of Will County was a French settlement, which is still known as Bourbonnais. It is a city of about three thousand people. The history of this township is so intimately connected with Reed Township that it may well be given in connection with that.
Custer Township has prospered because transportation has improved. This may be said perhaps of every township in the county. A concrete road is being built from Wilmington to Kankakee on the south side of the river following the general course of the stream throughout. Another road is being built this summer from Kankakee to Wilmington upon the north side of the stream. Both of these roads will bring summer residents to both sides of the stream. The village of Custer remains about the same size that it was forty years ago. Busi- ness, however, in the grocery stores, the oil stations, and the garage, is much better during the summer months because of the summer residents. Many summer homes are built along the Kankakee to the east and to the west of the village. Thus it is that this section of the county is being taken up rapidly by these transients. They find relief here from the congested regions of Chicago. The concrete roads make it possible to reach the village easily.
The farmers who have been struggling upon their farms which have thin soil will share in the prosperity of the village because they will find a market for poultry and produce which
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they did not have before. Large quantities of melons are raised because the sandy soil makes it possible to secure good crops.
The village school has been maintained in a one-room build- ing for several years. The building is an old structure which was moved in from two miles south in 1922. It has outlived its usefulness and this summer a new building is being con- structed, modern in every detail, to give the children the ad- vantages which they deserve.
Du Page Township .- The winter of the "deep snow" found a family or two in Du Page Township. In Central and North- ern Illinois, the deep snow is a chronological event, from which the old settlers who witnessed it date all important items in their history. There are at this date, however, very few left who witnessed that great fall of snow, which occurred in the winter of 1830-31, almost half a century ago. Occasionally we meet one who experienced the privations incident to four feet of snow for two months, which was the depth of this "great white carpet" we have so often been called upon to notice. To tell of all the sufferings and trials of the few who bore the brunt of that snowstorm in this section of the country, would be to repeat an "oft-told tale." We forbear. As stated above, there were a few families here that winter. Pierce Hawley, Stephen J. Scott and his son, Willard Scott, and Ralph Stowell came to this township in the fall of 1830 and settled in the grove of timber bordering the Du Page River. Hawley was originally from Vermont, but first settled, after coming to the country, in Sangamon County, then embracing nearly half of the state. Later, he removed to Holdeman's Grove, and in the fall of 1830, settled in this township, as noted. The Scotts came from Baltimore, the "Monumental City of the East," and set- tled, upon their arrival in Illinois, at Grose's Point (now Evans- ton), and in the fall of 1830, came to Du Page Township. The
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elder Scott went to California during the gold fever of 1849 and 1850, by the overland route; was seventy years of age at the time of his going, and died in the Golden State. His oldest son, Willis Scott, who came to the settlement two years later, lives in Chicago; and the other son, Willard Scott, who came with his father, is a prosperous merchant and banker in Naper- ville. Stowell came from Ohio here; but whether that was his native state or not, we are unable to say. He settled where Glover now lives, and afterward moved down on Fox River. He died several years ago. These were the families that waded through the deep snow of 1830-31, in this township.
In 1831, the settlement was increased by the arrival of Israel P. Blodgett, Robert Strong, John Dudley, Harry Boardman, Rev. Isaac Scarritt and Lester Peet. Blodgett came from Mas- sachusetts, and settled where Royce now lives. He was the father of Judge Blodgett, of Chicago. The Judge is remem- bered in the town as a boy of rather delicate appearance, who was very studious, attended the public schools and taught by way of improvement and of defraying his own expenses. The result is his present exalted position. The father moved to Downer's Grove, where he died some years ago and where his widow now lives. Strong, Boardman and Peet were from Ver- mont. The former was born in 1806, and when eight years old, his father removed to Pennsylvania, and five years later, re- moved to New York. Upon arriving at man's estate, and hav- ing taken to himself a life partner, Mr. Strong came to Illinois, arriving in Chicago in July, 1831. He at once proceeded to Plainfield, but found the land all "claimed" in that section. He says there were then twelve families living at Plainfield, or Walker's Grove, and they told him there was "no room for any more immigrants." He left his family at the house of Timothy B. Clarke, and went out prospecting for a location. He chose the place where he still lives, and bought it from two men named Selvey and Walker, who had a claim on it. He took possession
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at once and settled his family on the spot, and for forty-seven years they have occupied it. Selvey was an early settler, and was here during the Sac war. He was at one time very wealthy and owned a great deal of land in this section and a large num- ber of lots in Chicago. Mr. Clarke remembers his selling lots on Lake Street, in the very heart of the city, at $50 a lot; and his father once bought from Selvey the lot on which the Union Hotel now stands, corner of Canal and Madison streets, for $53. Boardman came from New York, and made the trip around the lakes, landing in Chicago in the summer of 1831. He was originally from Vermont, but like Strong, had lived for some time in New York before emigrating West. Mr. Boardman was an active man in the settlement, and favored every enter- prise for the good of his town. The first reaper used in Will County was bought by him and operated on his farm, in 1846, which was the year previous, it is said, to the one used by Granger, in Homer Township, mentioned in the "Combination Atlas" of the county. It was a McCormick reaper. Board- man had known McCormick in New York, before removing to Illinois, and meeting him in Chicago one day, McCormick proposed to sell him a reaper. Mr. Boardman had a large crop of wheat, and said to McCormick, "Suppose I should buy one of your machines and it would not work, I would lose a large part of my wheat crop." Whereupon McCormick proposed to enter into a bond, agreeing to pay the damage if it did not do what he claimed for it. Said Boardman: "I don't know that your bond is any better than your word." But finally he bought a machine on those conditions, and McCormick gave a bond, guaranteeing it as above stated. It was shipped to him and he cut his crop of wheat, it fully coming up to the guarantee given by McCormick. Two of his neighbors bought reapers the same season, and thus those labor-saving machines were introduced in the county. He was one of the first county com- missioners, an office he filled with credit to himself and satis-
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faction to others. He died in May, 1877. Peet settled here in 1831, near the county line, where Swartz now lives, and died a few years after his settlement. Rev. Scarritt was a Meth- odist minister, and came originally from some one of the East- ern states, but his wife was a Virginia lady. He settled a little east of where Mr. Strong lives, and upon the election of his son, P. P. Scarritt, sheriff of Will County, the elder Scar- ritt moved to Joliet and made a home with his son, where he died, several years ago. This comprised the residents in the town at the close of the second year after the first settlement was made within its borders.
In 1832, the year of the Black Hawk war, but few additions were made to the settlement here. Seth Westcott, John Barber and John Miller are all of whom we have any account of locat- ing here during the year 1832. Westcott came from New York, but was originally from Vermont. He settled on the south side of the river, where his son, Seth Westcott, Jr., now lives. The elder Westcott has been dead three or four years. John Barber came also from Vermont, and settled near Barber's Corners. He had twin sons, whose names were Francis and Franklin; the latter lives now on the old homestead, a prosper- ous farmer, and the picture of health and vigor. The father died a few years ago, after having been confined to his bed for nearly twenty years from rheumatism, and for several years had been blind and incapable of feeding himself. John Miller, another Vermonter, settled east of Barber's Corners, and was quite a prominent man of the township. He was the first super- visor after township organization, and was the only representa- tive that DuPage has ever sent to the State Legislature. He died in the spring of 1851, but a few weeks before his term of service as supervisor had expired. In 1833, Samuel Good- rich also from Vermont, settled a few rods west of Strong's. He removed to Minnesota a good many years ago, and died there in 1876, or about that time.
DIXIE HIGHWAY CRETE
ILL
DIXIE HIGHWAY, CRETE, ILL.
POST CRETE
THE PARK, CRETE, ILL.
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Col. William Smith settled here in 1834. He came from New York, and removed to Joliet a few years after coming to the country, where he was long known as one of the prominent men of the city, and where he died a few years ago.
In 1833, quite a little colony came to the township from Western New York, consisting of Andrew Godfrey, Shubel Swift, Peter Steward, Hiram Warren, Joseph R. Bessey, a fam- ily named Clifford, and Hannibal Ward. This colony made claims and settlements in the valley of the Du Page River, and all are now gone from the township except Hiram Warren. Shubel Swift lives at Waukegan, and Steward lives at Naper- ville. Sylvester Ward, a son of Hannibal Ward, lives near Bar- ber's Corners, and is one of the prosperous and wealthy farm- ers of the county. Hannibal Ward, a cousin of Sylvester Ward, is operating the latter's cheese factory, in the southern part of the town. Warren still lives on the place where he originally settled. Samuel Whallen was also from New York, and came to the Du Page Settlement in 1836. He lived to be ninety-four years old, and died in the township about five years ago. Thomas J. Sprague, another New Yorker, came out on a pros- pecting tour in 1837, and returned the next year and settled. He lives now at what is called Sprague's Corners, a wealthy farmer. This comprises most of the early settlers up to the time when the rush of immigration began. Settlements were made here as early as 1830, but, as Du Page possessed but a small scope of timbered land, there was room for but few inhabitants, until the virtues of the prairies were discovered years later. The early settlers all chose timbered localities, many believing that the prairies would never be of any value save for pasturage. Some even ventured the prophecy that their children would never live to see the prairies settled. In ten years from the time the first claim was made on the Du Page River, there was not a section left vacant in the entire township. Quite a large number of the first settlers of Du
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Page, perhaps a majority of them, were from Vermont, and were an intelligent class of people. The only one now living, of those who settled here previous to the Sac war, is Robert Strong, and he, as already stated is on his original claim. Willis Scott, of Chicago, and Willard Scott, of Naperville, were here at that time, but were boys or young men. Mr. Strong is the only old landmark left in the beautiful valley of Fountaindale, and is a man much respected in the neighborhood. He is the oracle, so far as regards the early history of this township, and but for him many of the particulars given in this chapter must necessarily have been left to conjecture.
The first mill in Du Page Township was a saw-mill built in 1836 by Alden & Scott. In 1840, another saw-mill was built by Ward, a little above the one just mentioned. Both were on the Du Page, and were washed away during a season of high water, and the old dams are still observable where these orig- inal mills were located. The only grist-mill was a little concern by Pierce Hawley, supplied with horse-power, and used to grind both corn and wheat. The "bolting" was done by hand, and we are told that it turned out a very fair quality of flour; not in quantity and quality with Norton's mill, at Lockport, but then, it satisfied the pioneers, who were often glad to get either flour or corn meal and even that of an inferior quality. Ralph Stowell kept the first tavern in the township, where Glover now lives, and also kept the stage-house after stages were put on the route between Chicago and Ottawa. Shubel Swift also kept a tavern in the early times, at what was called "the Junction," being the junction of the Chicago, Plainfield and Joliet roads. Du Page has no village within its limits, nor has ever had a store really deserving the name, but a few little stands, at various times, merely for neighborhood accommoda- tion. The first bridge was built across the Du Page where the Joliet and Naperville road crosses, about 1836 or 1837. It was built of logs, and was a rough affair. A number of good, sub-
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stantial bridges span the two branches of the Du Page in the town at present. The first post office was established at the stage-house already mentioned, and Mr. Stowell was the first Postmaster. The office was originally called Fountaindale, but finally changed to Du Page Post Office, by which name it is now known. As Du Page Post Office, it has traveled all over the township two or three times. Was first kept at the stage- house, then at Barber's Corners, at Col. Smith's, at the Junc- tion, again at Barber's Corners, and, indeed, it is hard to designate a place in the town where it has not been. There was, at one time, another post office in the southwest part of the township, called "Long John," and was established during the popular period of the man for whom it was named. (John Wentworth.) The man who made the effort to get the office was said to be an Abolitionist, and Long John swore that no - Abolitionist should have it, but that he would get it for any good Democrat, and so A. C. Paxson was made Postmaster, and he made the Abolitionist his deputy, and thus whipped the devil around the stump. But, Long John post office has passed away, and Du Page is now the only post office in the town, of which Samuel Angleman is Postmaster.
The first school was taught in this township by Josiah Gid- dings, in the winter of 1832-33, in a little house built for the purpose, a few rods west from where Mr. Strong lives. The house was a rude affair, of hickory logs split open and notched down on edge with the split side in; the cracks between the logs stopped with sticks and mud, and a chimney of the same material. This early pedagogue went to Wisconsin, where he lived at the last heard from him. When the first school dis- tricts were laid off, Will then being a part of Cook County, this original schoolhouse of Du Page Township was in School District No. 1 of Cook County, and thus entered in the "book of the law and testimony." Du Page has always maintained its early reputation for schools, and spared neither pains nor
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expense to disseminate knowledge among its inhabitants. In 1872, it had 11 school districts; 375 pupils enrolled; 22 teachers employed, and 10 good, comfortable schoolhouses. The amount of special tax levied was $2,454.31; amount paid teachers, $2,- 350.62. Total expenditures of the year, $3,749.23, leaving a balance in the treasury of $435.85.
Romeo, the village of that name which is located in the southeastern corner of Du Page Township and in the north- eastern corner of Lockport Township, was a companion town with "Juliet" (Romeo and Juliet). The adjacent quarries were in operation then because stone was an important building material. The canal was projected and railroads were visioned so realtors "platted" a city and sold lots. Nothing came of it. Lockport began to grow, Joliet developed rapidly and Romeo was forgotten. The change of "Juliet" to Joliet, des- troyed the companionship of the two places and Romeo was no more. Present titles to property in Romeo are without re- gard to the first plat of the town. The change in building material from stone to concrete made "The Stone City" a misnomer. One time, two trainloads of stone a day on the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific R. R. was the regular run. The Chicago and Alton carried just as many. Now "rubble stone" are never mentioned in laying foundations, and but few craftsmen know the meaning of rubble.
Du Page Township remains entirely agricultural today as it was fifty years ago but vastly improved. The first feature to note is the excellence of the highways in this township. All of the public highways of the township have gravel surfaces, kept in good condition all of the time and passable in all kinds of weather. Route 4A of the State Highway system comes into the township from the south along the old stage route from Joliet to Chicago. It comes into the township along this road until it reaches the east side of section 27 when it turns north to the old Chicago Road which it follows in an easterly
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