USA > Illinois > Will County > History of Will County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 2
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JOLIET TOWNSHIP.
DES PLAINES VALLEY-EARLY SETTLERS-FIRST WHITE MAN-PIONEER GRIST MILL-PRICE OF LAND-FIRST OFFICERS-MERCHANTS-GRAIN TRADE- STONE QUARRYING-EARLY BUSINESS MEN-JOLIET MOUND-BUILDING- SCHOOLS-PENITENTIARY 253-281
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII.
TOWNSHIPS, CONTINUED.
LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP-LOCKPORT-LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL-MAN- HATTAN TOWNSHIP-MANHATTAN-MONEE TOWNSHIP-MONEE-NEW LENOX TOWNSHIP-VILLAGE OF NEW LENOX-PEOTONE TOWNSHIP-PE- OTONE-PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP-PLAINFIELD-REED TOWNSHIP-CITY OF BRAIDWOOD-TROY TOWNSHIP 282-356
CHAPTER XIII.
TOWNSHIPS CONTINUED.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP-BEECHER-EAGLE LAKE-WESLEY TOWNSHIP- WHEATLAND TOWNSHIP-WHEATLAND PLOWING MATCH-WILL TOWN- SHIP-WILMINGTON TOWNSHIP-CITY OF WILMINGTON-WILTON TOWN- SHIP-WALLINGFORD-WILTON CENTER 357-411
CHAPTER XIV.
TRANSPORTATION IN WILL COUNTY.
INDIAN CANOE-TRAILS-WAGON ROADS-CANAL-STAGE ROUTES-BUS LINES - HIGHWAYS - PLANK ROADS - WATERWAY DEVELOPMENT - RAIL- ROADS 412-444
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER XV.
THE BAR IN WILL COUNTY.
PREVIOUS TO 1884-EARLY DAY LAWYERS-JUDGES-MEMBERS OF WILL COUNTY BAR 445-450
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CHURCHES.
EARLY MISSIONS-PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ORGANIZED-FIRST CONGREGA- TIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZED-ST. PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILT- FATHER PLUNKETT-CHRIST'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH-METHODISTS-UNI- VERSALIST-GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN-GERMAN LUTHERAN- SWEDISH LUTHERAN-BAPTISTS-SISTERS OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS 451-476
CHAPTER XVII.
HOSPITALS.
SILVER CROSS HOSPITAL, INCORPORATED IN 1891, "WATCHER'S CIRCLE," COR- NER STONE LAID IN 1893, TRUSTEES, FIRST OFFICERS, FIRST PATIENT- ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL, FOUNDED IN 1881, TYPHOID AND SMALLPOX EPI- DEMICS, THE FIRST BUILDING USED FOR HOSPITAL, FIRST ACCIDENT CASE, NEW BUILDINGS 477-482
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PRESS.
THE FIRST NEWSPAPER IN JOLIET-THE JOLIET REPUBLICAN-TRUE DEMO- CRAT-RECORD-PHOENIX SUN-OTHER EARLY NEWSPAPERS AND NEWS- PAPER MEN-POLIET HERALD-NEWS. 483-489
CHAPTER XIX.
EVERY-DAY LIFE OF THE PEOPLE.
FEVER AND AGUE-A DWELLING-PIONEER DAYS IN WILL COUNTY-THE BEE HUNTERS-OLD FORT-LINCOLN IN WILL COUNTY-ANOTHER FIRST WHITE CHILD-UNDERGROUND RAILROAD-THE LATEST INDIAN MOUND -"ANCIENT FIRES AND LIGHTS OF WILL COUNTY"-KILPATRICK'S CUR- RENCY-STOCK RUNNING AT LARGE-SNOWSTORM-OUR SAC WAR_490-526
WILL COUNTY COURT HOUSE, JOLIET, ILL.
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History of Will County
CHAPTER I.
PREPARING A DWELLING PLACE.
A PRODUCTIVE PLACE-FORMATION-CHANGES-GEOLOGICAL AGES-SOIL- PLANT LIFE-ANIMALS-MINERAL WEALTH-COAL DEPOSITS-DISCOV- ERED IN ILLINOIS-DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY
For a hundred million years God wrought that man might live. The wonderful Illinois Basin, of which Will County is a part, lies in the center of the most productive area in the world. Nowhere else will be found such a vast area rich in minerals, with the variety of climate, and the variations in soil which make it possible to produce all that man needs.
Man, with a finite mind, may hesitate to attempt to set forth the history of this wonderful region. The forces of na- ture are slow but sure. Nothing is hastened at the expense of thoroughness. The end always justifies the means as well as the time used in Her work.
Between the Alleghany Mountains on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west, stretched a great inland sea. The waters extended from what is now Hudson Bay on the north- ern extremity to the Gulf of Mexico on the southern end. Man reads the records in the rocks which were formed at the bottom of this sea.
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
Through eons of ages the sun lifted the water to clouds which were borne by the winds to the lands on the east and west. Over the lands the water was precipitated as rain. The floods returned again to the sea to repeat the operations. As they flowed downward they carried in solution or in suspended particles, the dregs from which rocks were formed. The waves sorted this material in layers of sand, or clay, or broken shells. In time these deposits molded until cementation and pressure changed sand into sandstone, clay into shale and the shells into limestone.
Gradually the bottom of this sea was elevated until the re- ceding waters showed the surface as a rough and broken land, mostly bare rock with fragments here and there where the edges clashed under the mighty forces of gravity and contrac- tion. Deformation and unequal erosion began as soon as the surface had lost its moisture. Wind and weather transformed the surface. The flood of waters from the torrential rains carried the detritus to the sea.
Once more this region was depressed to form a long medi- terranean sea with irregular coast lines both east and west. The mighty streams brought the burdens of rock-waste to the sea where they were sorted and molded as before.
Again and again these mighty changes took place, extend- ing through millions and millions of years. At one time the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, as we know it now, washed the place where Cairo now stands. At other times vast arms of the sea extended inland along irregular lines on the eastern shore as well as upon the western.
The changes were wrought in ages of time. Each was so long that human intelligence cannot comprehend it. The rec- ords have been left in the rocks which are found here and there in widely separated areas; by remains which formed molds of plants and animals thus leaving fossils; by drillings
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
which are brought to the surface when wells are sunk for water, oil, or gas.
Fossils preserve the forms of animals and plants which lived in the past. From them, the geologist is able to make up the history of life. He constructs pictures for us of ani- mals and plants that lived from time to time. Great skill has been acquired in reading these records. The structure of the teeth indicates whether the animal was a flesh eater or a vege- tarian. A single bone may indicate the size and structure of the animal which roamed these regions in geological times. Time and again one kind of animal disappeared to be succeeded by others which were suited to the climate and vegetable growth about them. Most surely God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.
In the ages which have been outlined in the preceding para- graph, in the processes which took place in successive stages of world forming, wrinkles were formed. Irregular rock for- mations jutted forth in many places. Finally the sea subsided for the last time and left a rolling upland with residual soil deposited in irregular layers over the surface.
The weathering of the surface proceeded more rapidly than it does now because inclement climate prevailed. Soil was moved about by wind and water into positions suited to the growth of plants. The development of plant life made animal life possible.
Plant life appeared with varied forms. Forests grew with trees sheltering weaker plants. The region assumed form and appearance similar to that which you have seen in your travels, or pictured in your texts.
Strange animals roamed the forests while others galloped over the open spaces. Reptiles swam the streams, grotesque in form and slow in movement. Birds found homes in the trees and insects buzzed in the air. Only man was missing from
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
the tumult on land and the commotion in the air. God knows best. Mankind would have been lost in the struggle. The earth was in the making, providing the soil with rich stores beneath and suitable plant growth and animal life above, to await his coming in the fulness of time.
Consider the events so remote that we can scarcely compre- hend the time. How wonderfully they affect our well-being. What blessing they bring to us in many, many ways. Surely the all-wise Creator prepared our dwelling with infinite care and foresight.
The preceding pages gave the reader a brief outline of the rock formation when the sea was the ruling force. In those periods of formation the great mineral wealth of Illinois was created. One of the greatest of these is coal. While the plants and animals of the sea were building rocks the plants upon land were making preparation for coal. God provided abun- dance of sunlight and moisture.
The leaves of the trees gathered the carbon from the air and converted it into coal. This was deposited in layers and sealed over with shale rock and soil where it is preserved through the ages until man brings it to the surface.
Forests included huge ferns fifty to sixty feet high, min- gled with soft wood, evergreens, rapid-growing trees which became tall and slender, commingled with smaller plants un- derneath. All were of rank growth in a moist, hot climate. These forests matured, died, and changed through chemical action into peat bogs which were compressed later and con- verted to coal.
In the territory now comprised in the State of Illinois this process of growth, decay, and submerging to store coal, oc- curred at least six times. Many sections contain six veins of coal in successive order from thirty-feet below the surface to many hundreds.
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
Coal was first discovered in Illinois in 1679, near the pres- ent site of Ottawa. Outcroppings of "black rock" were found by Father Hennepin, one of the missionaries and explorers who came out from France. He knew that it would burn but the abundance of wood made coal unimportant. The first rec- ord tells us that in 1810, it was mined in Jackson County along the bluffs of the Big Muddy River. In that year a flat-boat was loaded and sent to New Orleans, thus early showing the desirability of a deep waterway. In 1832, several boat-loads were taken out and shipped. In 1833, 6,000 tons were mined in St. Clair County and transported in wagons to St. Louis.
Here and there these stores of coal were used in a small way until the development of industry made the demand for large quantities. Chicago, Joliet, and other industrial centers about the head of Lake Michigan used large quantities. This brought the mining industry into Will County and Braidwood became the leading mining town in Illinois.
CHAPTER II.
THE DES PLAINES VALLEY.
ITS FORMATION-GEOLOGICAL SURVEY-LOCATION-AREA-TOPOGRAPHY- DIVIDE BETWEEN LAKES AND THE MISSISSIPPI-THE DES PLAINES AND DU PAGE RIVERS-CHICAGO DRAINAGE CANAL-VISION OF MARQUETTE AND LA SALLE-A PART OF THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER BASIN-A PROPHESY
The valley of the Des Plaines River possesses a peculiar interest in the history of Will County, as it does in the history of Illinois and of the United States. In the account of the glacial formation of our state it was the channel through which the impounded waters escaped to the Mississippi River. Man has restored this connection by building the Chicago Drainage Canal through which the waters flow once more to the Father of Waters. Its physical features brought about the early dis- covery and exploration, and shaped its present industrial ad- vantages and the future development. The deep waterway project and the constructions now under way in the outskirts of Joliet evidence these things.
The following account of the valley and the river is taken from Bulletin Number 11 of the Illinois State Geological Sur- vey: "The long basin of the Des Plaines River lies only a few miles west of Lake Michigan, in the northeast corner of Illinois. From northern Kenosha County in Wisconsin southward through Lake, Cook, Du Page, and Will counties in Illinois, the basin has a length of ninety miles. Its width, however, is never over twenty-five miles and for a large part of the dis- tance is less than fifteen. Its area is about 1,400 square miles.
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
The northern portion of this basin is narrow, and is drained almost wholly by the trunk river and a single tributary, Salt Creek. Its area (above Summit) is about 634 square miles. The southern portion is wider and more complex, for it in- cludes the north-south basin of the Du Page River, the largest tributary of the Des Plaines, and several rather long creeks from the east. A few miles below the mouth of the Du Page, the Des Plaines unites with the Kankakee to form the Illinois River.
The elongated form of the Des Plaines basin is largely, if not wholly dependent on the deposition of glacial drift. At the close of the glacial period, when the district finally emerged from the waning ice sheet, the bed rock had benn concealed by an irregular blanket of loose earth material or "drift," de- posited in part by the glacier itself and in part by the waters that came from it. Conspicuous among the newly built surface features was a broad U-shaped belt of rolling ground, stand- ing a little above its surroundings, and encircling the south end of Lake Michigan through Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. This belt is known as the Valparaiso moraine. This great moraine is crossed obliquely by the Des Plaines River between Summit and Joliet, and from its slope comes a large part of the water discharged by the river. The Valparaiso morainic belt is, in fact, a system of parallel ridges; first, a central ridge which makes up the main body of the moraine; second, an outer ridge, lower or narrower, which divides the Du Page basin from the Des Plaines proper, north of Joliet, and which for several miles south of Joliet is separated from the main moraine by a crescent shaped plain; and third, an inner ridge, lying east of the central belt, and separated from it by the basin of Salt Creek.
The Des Plaines issues from a flat swamp, or slough, near the boundary of Racine and Kenosha counties, Wisconsin, where drainage is so imperfect that in wet weather part of
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
the marsh discharges northward to Root River a part south- ward to the Des Plaines. From this ill-defined divide the little stream runs south along the depression which separates the two westernmost of the lake-border till ridges, gathering drainage from other creeks among the morainic hollows, turning to run eastward for a few miles in Kenosha County, then resuming a southerly course and entering Illinois between the two till ridges which at that point compose the whole lake-border system. West of Waukegan the river passes through the west ridge; and thence southward past Libertyville, Wheeling, Franklin Park and Maywood, it follows the broad inter-mo- rainic basin immediately east of the Valparaiso moraine. En- tering the Chicago plain by way of this broad pass, which is in itself an arm of the lake plain nearly shut off by a long sand spit at Oak Park, the river winds around a beach ridge at Riverside swinging again eastward around a rock elevation at Lyons.
In the distance of sixty miles from the head of the Des Plaines to the Riverside dam the river falls ninety feet, or at an average rate of 11/2 feet per mile. From Riverside down- stream for three miles, the Des Plaines descends fourteen feet on the exposed ledges, or about five feet per mile, to the Ogden dam. At this point it lies within ten miles of Lake Michigan, and is less than twelve feet above it.
Here, then, near Summit, is the divide between the lakes and the Gulf, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. In time of flood a large portion of the Des Plaines discharges over the dam and through a ditch to the Chicago River and the lake, while the remainder follows the lower Des Plaines down to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. This double discharge was operative under natural conditions before the Ogden dam was built. The natural divide was five miles farther east, near Kedzie Avenue, at the east end of a great swampy tract, known as Mud Lake. So flat is the plain at this point that the escape
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
of the Des Plaines from the lake plain westward through the deep notch in the moraine seems highly accidental.
From Summit it makes for the head of the abandoned chan- nel of the "Chicago outlet" where the waters of Lake Chicago once poured across the moraine toward the Illinois valley. With uncertain course, the river runs for a long distance on the flat channel floor. This stretch between Summit and Lemont is known as the "12-mile level." Since the construction of the sanitary canal, the Des Plaines is confined to an artificial chan- nel by earthworks. Approaching Lemont, the river finds bed rock rising to the level of the valley floor, and still higher on either side in rock bluffs. Near the left bank of the Des Plaines and parallel to it down the outlet, run the Illinois-Michigan canal and the Chicago drainage canal. Both of them are largely cut in solid limestone.
Beyond Lemont the rock declines again to about the level of the valley floor, and the channel is cut through the thick till structure of the moraine. Bending southward, the river runs past Romeo; and now there appear at the top of its bluffs, terrace remnants of an old outwash plain or valley train -the original filling of the valley, deeply trenched by the out- let. At Romeo, the Des Plaines begins to descend a long series of shallow rapids, which lower it eight feet in the ten miles to the Joliet pool. At Lockport, on the old canal, and farther down, near Joliet, are three locks made necessary by the rap- ids. Here the bed rock rises some thirty or forty feet above the floor in bluffs on both sides of the valley, forming a flat rock terrace twenty feet lower than the fragments of the out- wash plain. These two terraces, the one of gravel and sand of the outwash, and the other of rock, mark important steps in the history of the river, and of Lake Chicago of which it was the outlet. At Joliet, the river is confined artificially, passing through the west side of the city. A single dam crosses it at Jackson Street. Below Joliet the descent of the river is steep
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
for two or three miles to Brandon's bridge, where it broadens, forming Joliet pool.
This pool, otherwise known as "Lake Joliet," occupies a broad, shallow depression (ranging to ten feet in depth) in the floor of the old outlet. It extends five miles down the val- ley, below Brandon's bridge, allowing the river no perceptible fall in that distance. The level of the river here is about sev- enty-six feet below Lake Michigan. The pool is probably due to a deepening of the floor of the ancient river, where it passed from the hard Niagara limestone out on to the weaker lime- stones and shales of the Cincinnati formation.
Below Joliet pool, the slope of the river is again moderate for three miles. Just beyond the mouth of the Du Page River another pool, "Lake Dupage," is entered. This is ninety feet below Lake Michigan, and extends three miles down the val- ley. Half a mile below it the Des Plaines joins the Kankakee, at the head of the Illinois River .- "Physical Features of the Des Plaines Valley," by J. W. Goldthwait.
The foregoing account of the Des Plaines valley includes man-made parts within recent years. These were the Illinois- Michigan Canal, the Chicago Drainage Channel, the diverting of the river to prepare for this channel, the Ogden dam, the power plant between Lockport and Joliet, and now (April, 1928), the beginning of the deep waterway project for which constructions are under way. Nevertheless artificial channels and obstructions are comparatively unimportant when com- pared with the changes which were made by Nature. She worked with irresistible power in unlimited time. Through the ages the waters labored to prepare a highway through which mankind might travel to newer fields and richer harvest.
Another striking feature is the vision of the first white men who came this way, Marquette and La Salle. They saw the possibilities of communication over waterways connecting Lake
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
Michigan with the Gulf by way of the Mississippi River. Too tardily perhaps, we are realizing what they saw.
The story of the Laurentian waters is not remiss here be- cause it includes the history of Lake Chicago and the Chicago outlet. Both of these are causative in the geology of the valley and the valley in turn was an agency in shaping the history of mankind in the county as well as in Illinois.
The Great Lakes are really a part of the St. Lawrence River basin in the highlands north of the west end of Lake Superior where we find a small river. One may imagine the Lakes shrinking until winding streams flow in the lowest parts of the basin. Thus one may see (in imagination) a river flow- ing near the "Soo," thence onward through Huron to the On- tario country, receiving in turn branches from Michigan and Erie and Southern Ontario and thence down the St. Lawrence to the sea.
Again one may imagine that this river was blocked at vari- ous places so that water accumulated to form the lakes as we are familiar with them. Thus they become blocked river valleys.
The water of the Great Lakes once flowed to the sea by way of the Chicago outlet and the Illinois-Mississippi river. Later they found their way out by way of the Mohawk Valley to the Hudson, and still later by the present route through the Saint Lawrence. Who shall say that the present route is permanent ? Geologists tell us that the great plain which contains the lakes is tilting to the southwest. A few centuries may see some of the waters diverted to the Mississippi and a few thousand years may leave the Niagara Gorge high and dry. But man has al- ready caused some water to flow through the Chicago outlet. If the tilting does not cease, he may delay the change for cen- turies by restraining the overflow and thus saving Niagara Falls.
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
As we think on these things, we wonder what forces caused these changes, these dams in the river valleys to produce the wonderful lake system, the Great Lakes, which have aided our country so much, and whose usefulness is just beginning. The Creator never lacks instruments for His work. Flowing water had wrought through countless centuries grinding the rocks into soil. This moved hither and thither and mixed until plants grew and animals flourished. Then he sent the glaciers to re- build once more that a mighty people might live.
CHAPTER III.
THE GLACIER PERIOD.
CHANGES THROUGH AGES-MAGNITUDE OF ICE SHEETS-MOVED SOIL AND ROCKS OVER WILL COUNTY AND ILLINOIS-EVIDENCES OF GLACIERS IN ILLINOIS-IN THE DES PLAINES VALLEY-RECEDED NORTHWARD
When what is now Northern Illinois emerged from the Mediterranean sea referred to in the preceding pages, air and water reduced them to particles to form soil. These agencies of decay transformed the surface and prepared it for plant life which was in turn followed by animals. Minerals were laid down and sealed to provide rich stores for man. Age suc- ceeded age, each doing its share.
How much time did this take? Who can be sure? At least as long as it took to fold the Alleghany Mountains, wear them down to a plain, uplift them again and deform them by erosion. While these things were going on in the Eastern Highlands, the Illinois Basin was reduced to a level plain, a lowland almost level with the sea. This plain was then raised by an irregular warping movement, making some new rivers and reviving others and these in turn formed valleys and hills, uplands and plains.
These valleys and hills, uplands, and plains were not to re- main. The great ice sheet spread outward in a circle from two centers. Labrador and Keewatin. Why this great field of ice developed so far from the North Pole, has never been ex- plained. These reasons are offered by geologists: The Plane-
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY
tary relations of the earth may have changed; the ocean-cur- rents may have shifted by deformations underneath the sea; the continent may have risen above the snow-line; the at- mosphere may have changed so that geographic changes caused a cool climate.
We are prone to think of glaciers as narrow streams of ice moving down some valley to melt as soon as it reaches the warmer regions. We are impressed by the irresistible force which drives them downward. The icebergs which break away from their faces, fill us with awe. But this ice sheet which moves outward from the Canadian Highlands covered 4,000,- 000 square miles, as large as the ice sheet which forms the Antarctic continent.
The ice was thick enough to cover the mountains in the northern Alleghany regions. In the Des Plaines valley, com- putations which have been made indicate a mass 9,000 feet thick, and over Joliet and Chicago it was 12,000 feet. For a hundred thousand years it modified and shaped the hills and plains which preceded it. A warmer climate melted the ice and an age of warm weather prevailed. This was succeeded by an- other glacial era to be followed by an interglacial one. It is thought that five different glaciers spread over Will County.
The advancing glacier gathered residual soil and rock de- bris. This was carried intact until the melting ice released its hold and deposited the "drift." It melted slowly, the drift ac- cumulated in large ridges or moraines. If it melted rapidly, a thin sheet was laid down over the plain. At least four distinct moraines are given for Illinois as follows, beginning at the south: Shelbyville Moraine, Bloomington Moraine, Marseilles Moraine, and Valparaiso Moraine. The last named is of most interest here because the Des Plaines Valley cuts through it and parts of it are found in Will County. The southernmost limit of glaciation is placed as far south as the mouth of the
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