USA > Illinois > Will County > History of Will County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 19
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"Farewell my friends, farewell my foes,
My peace with these, my love with those."
The first white child born in Lockport Township is sup- posed to have been Orrin Runyon, who was born on the 27th of May, 1833. He lives now in California. This is doubtless correct, as at that time there were but a few families in the
CATHOLIC SCHOOL
CATHOLIC SCHOOL, LOCKPORT, ILL.
STATE Sr. LOCKPORT
STATE STREET, LOCKPORT, ILL.
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town. The first birth on the west side of the Des Planes River, in the present limits of Lockport, was Eliel S. Bronson, a son of Cyrus Bronson, born April 23, 1835. The first marriage was that of Louisa Webb and Michael Noel, and the matri- monial knot was tied by C. C. Van Horne, a justice of the peace from the Hickory Creek settlement.
The following circumstance is, perhaps, not out of place in this connection. A son of Nathan Hutchins went to Chicago with a wagon and team. He carried a load of produce to be exhanged for groceries and such goods as were needed at home. They were then living near Rockford, having moved to that section in 1836. The young man's team was found stabled by some one who recognized it, and word sent to Hutchins, who came and took it home. It had been there several days, the proprietor of the stable feeding and caring for it without know- ing to whom it belonged. From that day to this, the young man has not been heard of. It is said that he had a little money and whether he ran away or was murdered is, and will per- haps remain forever, one of the unrevealed mysteries.
The first practicing physician in Lockport Township was a Dr. Miner, who came to the settlement in the winter of 1833- 34, and lived on Mr. Runyon's place for a year or two. He was an Eastern man, but from what state could not be ascertained.
The first minister of the Gospel in this section of the coun- try was a young man from Massachusetts, of the name of Greenwood, sent out by the Home Mission of the Presbyterian Church, and who preached for a year and a half at the house of the elder Bronson, on the west side of the Des Planes River. After leaving his labors in this town, he went to the wilds of Wisconsin, and once got lost in what was well known in an early day as the "Big Swamp" of the Badger State, and came very near starving to death before he found his way out. He had some property and when believing he was doomed to perish in the dismal swamp, sat down and wrote his will, threw it on
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the ground and lay down by it to die. But reviving somewhat after awhile, got up and pursued his way in a kind of listless manner, until the crowing of a cock infused new life into him and assured him that relief was at hand. He found the cabin of a settler, who took him in, gave him food, and where he remained until his exhausted energies were fully restored. The next preachers to proclaim salvation in this township were the Methodist itinerants, Revs. Blackburn and Beggs, the latter removed to Plainfield, to rest from a long life of labor in the vineyard of the Lord. Another of the early preachers of that day was a Congregational minister of the name of Foster, who used to preach at the schoolhouse, long before there was a church edifice in the town. The old fellow had a way of wiping his nose on his coat-tail, when preaching, a performance not altogether agreeable to his hearers; and so Dr. Daggett, with some others, raised a contribution and bought the good old preacher a beautiful red bandana, which, with due solemnity, they presented to him. The elder Mr. Bronson was in Chicago one day with his team, and when about starting home was ac- costed by a very polite, courteous gentleman, with a slight foreign accent, who asked to ride out with him. He brought him out in his wagon, found him very intelligent, and was well pleased with him. Acting upon the injunction to be kind to the wayfaring man, for many have so entertained angels una- wares, he kept him over night, and in the morning sent him on to Joliet. A few days later Mr. Bronson was in Joliet, when the same gentleman came up and spoke to him, apparently very glad to see him. He then learned that it was Father Plunkett, sent to Joliet to take charge of the Catholic Church there, and whose melancholy death is noted in the history of that city.
Education received attention at a very early period in the history of Lockport. The first school of which we have any account was taught in 1835, by a young lady from Joliet, whose name is now forgotten. She afterward married a man named
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Eastman, and removed to Chicago. The next was taught by a Miss Royce, of Dupage Township. Both of these schools were before the day of schoolhouses, and were taught in a little room built by Captain Sisson as an addition to his dwelling and in- tended for a kitchen, but surrendered it for school purposes. The first schoolhouse was built by the neighbors en masse, and was a small log cabin. The work and material were donated -one man giving logs, etc., while another cut down a tree, sawed it up and made "shakes," or boards, to cover it. A log was cut out for a window, a large fireplace with a stick chim- ney, and benches made by splitting open a small tree, boring auger-holes and putting in legs, is a pen photograph of this primitive schoolhouse. There are some who assert that the first school was taught by a Miss Warren, of Warrenville, Du- Page County, as early as 1834, just in the edge of Lockport, near what was known as the Barnett place.
The town site for Lockport was chosen by the canal com- missioners, and the village laid out by them. It was selected with a view of making it their headquarters, and soon after its selection, they erected their Canal office here, which has ever since, with some improvement, been used for that purpose. The village was laid out under the supervision of William B. Archer, by a surveyor named Wampler, and the first sale of lots took place on the 22d day of November, 1837, and lots sold to the amount of $6,000. The Canal office was the first building of any importance erected in the town, and doubtless had con- siderable influence in inducing the first settlers of the village to come to the place. The Canal commissioners, as well as many other persons of intelligence, probably over-rated the advan- tages of this locality for a commercial and manufacturing town.
The first store was established in Runyontown (now North Lockport) by a man named Kellogg, and was but a sort of grocery store, a rather small affair. Goss & Parks kept the
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first dry goods store at the same place, and at the laying-out of Lockport proper, removed within its limits, Goss and Ste- phen Godding opening a store in partnership, and Parks like- wise opening one on its own hook. After the retirement of Stephen Gooding, Oliver P. Gooding took charge of this, and soon other mercantile establishments were opened, and Lock- port grew rapidly. The first building of any pretensions erected was the Canal office, as already stated. There were, however, several cabins and huts put up within the present limits of the village, by the early settlers, long before it was laid out as a village. The first tavern was built by Horace Morse, but Mr. Runyon, we believe, kept travelers before this tavern was built, though he did not pretend to keep a regular hotel. The first postoffice was established in 1836, over on the west side of the river, at the stone mill, and Edward P. Bush was the first post- master. The office remained at the mill until 1839, when it was removed across the river to the east side, where it has ever since remained. While at the mill, the mail came once a week, and was brought on horseback. In 1839, coaches were put on the Chicago and Ottawa route, and the mail then came that way, which was considered, in that early day, quite an improve- ment, and a considerable advance toward civilization. The first representatives of the legal profession were Gen. James Turney and John W. Paddock, both long since dead.
The Methodist Church was organized in Lockport at an early date. In 1838, this was included in Joliet Circuit, with Rev. William Crissey, pastor, and Rev. John Clarke, presiding elder. In the winter of 1838, Rev. Mr. Crissey formed the first class in Lockport, consisting of G. L. Works, class-leader, his wife, D. Breesee and wife, M. Brooks, R. Lowrie, Polly Mc- Millen, Dira Manning, A. Heath and Julia Reed. In the spring of 1842, Col. Joel Manning joined on probation, and was ap- pointed class leader, a position he held for fifteen years. In 1852, Lockport was made a station, and, in 1854, it and Plain-
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field were united. In 1854-55, during the pastorate of Rev. M. Reed, the present fine stone church was built, at a cost of $7,000; and, in 1867, a second parsonage was built, costing about $3,000, on a beautiful lot opposite the church.
The Baptist Church was organized in 1844, by Rev. Solomon Knapp, with twenty-one members. Some years later, their church was built, a neat little frame building, which cost about $1,500.
The Congregational Church was organized in 1838, with nine members, viz .: Erastus Newton and wife, John Gooding and wife, Harvey Raymond, Dr. Chauncey White and wife, and William B. Newton and wife. The church was built in 1839, at a cost of $2,000. The first minister was Rev. Isaac Foster, and following him in the order given were Rev. Jona- than Porter, Rev. Alanson Porter, Rev. Joel Grant, Rev. Mr. Whiting, Rev. George Slosser, Rev. Alfred L. Riggs, Rev. H. C. Abernethy, Rev. Mr. Post, Rev. A. B. Brown, Rev. J. E. Storm, and Rev. S. I. McKee.
The Roman Catholic Society was organized here at the commencement of the building of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and was at first attended by the priests in charge of the Joliet Mission. The first resident priest at Lockport was Father Dennis Ryan, and the first church was a small frame shanty, moved from Lemont, which, with some improvements, was used for a house of worship until 1877. In 1877, the elegant stone church was begun. When finished, this was the finest church in the city, and handsome ornament to the place. It cost about $25,000. The architects were Egan & Hill, of Chicago, and the stone was furnished by J. A. Boyer, of Lockport. Father Dorney was the priest in charge, and to his energetic efforts was the parish indebted for this magnificent church. This church is still a splendid edifice visible for miles because of its commanding position on the hill.
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The City of Lockport is now a residential section for Joliet and Chicago. It has a large number of commuters for Chi- cago each day, people who find employment in schools, offices, and factories. Many others use the electric line to take them to Joliet for the various industries of that city. A good street car service is maintained. A bus line runs between the two cities and a concrete road makes it possible to pass back and forth quickly.
It has the Chicago and Alton Railroad connecting it with Chicago and all points south. It has the interurban electric line which is one of the few lines which has survived in the com- petition with busses and trucks. It is a flourishing institution and bids fair to continue for many years. The concrete road, Route 4 of the Illinois State Highway System, makes it possible to drive back and forth over good roads.
There are three large manufacturing industries in the city of Lockport. The Barrows Lock Company which has been lo- cated there for more than a quarter of a century. This firm has uniformly good business amounting to more than a quarter of a million dollars per year. It furnishes steady employment to many men at good wages. The Northern Illinois Cereal Company has been located in Lockport for fifteen years. It took over the plant of the Morton Flour Mills which could not compete with the larger concerns of the northwest where wheat was easily obtained. This cereal company is a prosperous con- cern. Its business amounts to more than half a million dollars per year. The Texas Company has a plant which covers half a section of land upon which they have storage tanks by the score, refining plants and all of the other equipment neces- sary for producing the various products from crude petroleum. The crude oil comes by a pipe line from Houston, Texas, and other points in the southwest. Large shipments are also re- ceived in tank cars. A business of this concern amounts to millions of dollars per year and reaches into many states. The
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Illinois and Michigan Canal office is still maintained in this city. While the old canal is no longer filled with water between Joliet and Chicago, below Joliet there is some traffic. The Lockport office manages all of the details of that institution.
Lockport has good paved roads. It is a city of beautiful homes, located upon the higher land above the valley.
The schools of Lockport are very good and consist of three grade schools and the township high school. The township high school takes care of about 190 students. It has a capacity for many more and will be able to take care of the increased attendance for another decade. The grade schools, three in number, the Lockport City Grade School which employs twelve teachers; the Taft School which is sometimes known as the South Lockport School employs eight teachers; and the Fair- mont School employs eleven teachers. This last named school has a new building in the process of construction at the present time. The new structure includes a modern gymnasium with all of the modern equipment for that part of the school work. All of these schools are well managed by able school men.
Lockport Township High School was organized in the year 1908 and housed in a new $50,000 building, located on the block bordered by Jefferson, Madison, Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets. In the year 1911, there were 152 students in the build- ing and the school graduated twenty students. The attendance gradually increased until it was deemed feasible to build a new addition to the original structure which cost in the neighbor- hood of $85,000. This addition was erected in 1925. Just prior to this, a sixteen acre athletic field had been purchased by the Board of Education and during the last year, the three tennis courts on that field have been paved. The attendance during the fall of 1928 has reached the mark of 270. Forty-five seniors were graduated in the spring of 1928.
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The school is a member of the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges and is accredited by the State Department, by the University of Illinois and also by the Uni- versity of Chicago. A wide choice of subjects is offered to stu- dents in the academic, commercial, vocational, domestic science, music, and athletic departments. There is a band of forty-five pieces and an orchestra of twenty-four pieces. Two Girl Scout Troops are an integral part of the high school. The school has charters from the National Athletic Scholarship Society and from the National Honor Society. A school paper is published every month and a school annual at the end of the year.
The Board of Education is composed of Mr. H. A. Godfrey, president, who resides at Fairmount; Mr. Joseph Hyland, who is employed at the Northern Illinois Cereal Company; Mr. Mur- ray Ladd, president of the Illinois Cereal Company; Gilbert Pierce, who owns and operates a farm, and Doctor Roblee, prac- ticing physician in Lockport and Joliet.
James M. Smith, B. A., M. A., a graduate of the University of Chicago, is superintendent of the high school. He came to Lockport from Harvey in 1925. Mr. Smith served in France during the World War.
Manhattan Township .- The Township of Manhattan was known as Trenton. When Will County adopted township or- ganization, what are known as Green Garden and Manhattan were in one, known as Trenton. In 1858, the population had increased sufficiently so that the township was separated and named Manhattan.
The first settler in Manhattan Township was Orin Stevens, but of him little can now be learned further than that he had made a settlement at Five-Mile Grove. He was keeping a sort of tavern there when the next settlers came in, in 1834. The Perkinses were the next to settle after Stevens, and consisted of Ephraim Perkins and four sons, viz., Orin, Edward, Eph-
LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL
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raim and Pliny Perkins. They were from Trenton, New York, and Edward came out in June, 1834, and bought out the man Stevens. Where Stevens was from, when he settled at Five- Mile Grove or what became of him after he sold out, are items of the township history lost in the things of the past. Edward Perkins was a single man when he first came to the settlement, but returned to New York in the fall and married, and brought his young wife to the West. Jerrod Gage came about this time, and he and Perkins entered into partnership in the dairy busi- ness at Five-Mile Grove. The next spring (1835), Perkins' father and brothers came out, and also Gage's father and his family. The elder Gage had been an extensive dairyman in "York State," and being an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, the "Sage of Ashland" and renowned Kentucky statesman, once made him a mammoth cheese, and presented it to him during one of his campaigns.
Hiram Harvey also settled at Five-Mile Grove, about 1835 or 1836, and was from the East, but what particular state we were unable to learn, nor do we know what became of him. These few settlements around Five-Mile Grove seem to have been all that were made in the township until a quite recent date, as compared to other portions of the county. As this little grove was the only timber in the town, and it required a score or two of years for the people to find out that the prairies were habitable, probably accounts for the long gap that occurred just here in the arrival of newcomers to this section, as the next we find coming in about 1847 and 1850 and which we will not notice.
John Young came from New York City in 1849, and settled in this township, where he remained until 1876, when he re- moved to Joliet.
Freeman Gay came from the bleak shores of the Pine Tree State, about 1847 or 1848, and settled in this neighborhood, where he remained a number of years, and finally removed
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into Jackson Township. From Jackson he moved to California where his descendants live now.
William Nelson, a prominent citizen of the town in the early days came here from Trenton, New York, but was an English- man by birth. He settled in this section in 1848, and gave the town the name of Trenton, when it and Greengarden were known as one township, as noticed in the beginning of this account. He sold out, some years ago, and removed into Jack- son Township. William and Charles Bissett were from Bonny Scotland, and came to the settlement in 1848. Charles died in a short time after their settlement here. William went to California during the gold excitement of 1849 and 1850, where he still lived the last known of him. A man named Borders settled here in 1849. He was from Ohio, and did not remain long in the settlement. What became of him no one knows or seems to care.
Clarke Baker came from New York, and bought land here in 1847, but did not settle on it until 1850.
This comprises a number of the first settlers of Manhattan Township up to a period when the tide of immigration poured in with a rapidity defying the power of the historian to keep pace with names and dates. When township organization went into effect, in 1850, there were but ten legal voters in the terri- tory now comprised in Manhattan Township, and, as already stated, was not sufficient to form a township of itself, but was, with Greengarden, known as Trenton Township, and so re- mained until 1853, when they were separated and organized under their present names. William Nelson was the first sup- ercisor of Trenton Township, and held the office in 1850; was succeeded by M. Bailey, who served during 1851 and 1852, when the towns were divided, and John Young elected supervisor of Manhattan for 1853. Clarke Baker was elected in 1854, and held it for two years, when Mr. Young was reelected, and held the office from 1856 to 1860, inclusive. In 1861, Clarke Baker
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was again elected and also in 1862, and in 1863, was succeeded by G. A. Buck, who served until 1865, when J. E. Baker was elected, serving from 1865 to 1869, inclusive. G. A. Buck was then reelected, and served 1870-72, and was succeeded by S. Robinson, in 1873-74, When Clarke Baker was again elected, and held the office for four years. Other township officers were Clarke Baker and Hiram Olney, justices of the peace; Hiram Olney, town clerk; Michael Haley, constable, and George A. Buck, school treasurer.
The first church structure ever erected in Manhattan Town- ship was the Episcopal Church, built in 1857, under the minis- terial charge of Rev. Clinton Locke, who at the time was rec- tor of the Episcopal Church in Joliet, and now of Grace Church, Chicago, and whom we noticed as officiating in the reception of President Hayes in his visit to Chicago. The first schoolhouse was built in 1852, and in it was taught the first school in the township. For as before stated, there were but few children in the settlement for several years, and consequently not much need felt for schoolhouses. In 1872, a little more than a score of years after the second era of immigration set in, we find the town contained eight school districts and eight good, sub- stantial schoolhouses. There were 415 pupils enrolled and 13 teachers employed; the district tax levy for the support of schools was $1,135.22, and $1,422.35 the amount paid to teachers.
Manhattan Township has prospered from the very first settlement and at this time contains many prosperous farmers who devote themselves almost exclusively to grain farming. They can do this to advantage because the soil is naturally very fertile and because it has been cultivated a shorter period of time than many other townships. In the north part of the township, dairying has been begun with success. The John Baker farm now owned by Dr. Shreffler of Joliet has perhaps the best Guernsey herd in Will County. Across the road from this farm is another large dairy farm operated by Mr. Holder-
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man. He has a barn built within the past year which is the best dairy barn in Will County. It is the largest and best equipped building of its kind in the entire township.
The concrete road, Route 22 of the Illinois State Highway system connecting Joliet and Kankakee passes through Man- hattan. A bus line is operated over this highway making four trips a day. These buses afford good connection with Joliet as well as Kankakee. Strange to say this concrete road has not detracted very much from the business of the City of Manhat- tan. It is a large grain center with four elevators. Two of them owned and operated by the Manhattan Farmers' Grain Company and two owned and operated by the Baker, Jones, and Company. Both firms do an extensive business through- out the year, buying grain and selling supplies to the farmers. There are four garages and like all automobile businesses all of them are prosperous. One is operated by Cunningham and Brown who handle Fords mostly. Another is operated by R. W. Cockle. Another is operated by Timm Brothers who have an extensive truck business in connection with the garage. Another is operated by Alva Weber who handles Hudson-Essex cars. The town still has a blacksmith shop owned and operated by Edward Hutchinson. Mr. Hutchinson is a real blacksmith and is prepared to do any work in his line. There are four grocery stores. Perhaps this is two too many because they are not as prosperous as they might be. There are two hardware stores-Schroeder's Cash Store and the Consumer's Hardware and Supply Company. August Tennyson maintains a modern drug store fully equipped in every detail. There are two banks -Manhattan State Bank and The First National Bank. If banks are any index to business, Manhattan must be a success- ful business town because both of these banks are prosperous. There are two doctors-Dr. G. H. Brannon and Dr. Pederson. Dr. R. O. Duguid looks after their teeth.
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The school is a two-story brick structure with four teach- ers in the grades, and two in the high school. In the high school they teach the first two years leaving the third and fourth year for a larger institution. Most of the graduates of the Manhattan High School come to the Joliet Township High School to finish up their credits. The Catholics maintain a splendid church edifice which has a large number of families to its charge. The Evangelical Association maintains a small church. The Methodists have a regular pastor and the Episco- palians have services semi-occasionally.
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