USA > Illinois > Will County > History of Will County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 34
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The Joliet Daily Sun was established in 1872, but within a few years thereafter it was merged into the Joliet Republican, which for a time was published under the name of the Repub- lican-Sun, and later changed back to the Joliet Republican.
The Juliet Courier was the pioneer newspaper of Will County, the first issue of which was published April 20, 1839.
The Juliet Courier was founded by Charles Clement, Ed- mond Wilcox, Hugh Henderson, R. Doolittle and the Allan brothers. It was published on what was then called Merchants row, on north Bluff Street. It is, indeed, a remarkable coinci- dence that Cordelia W. Clement, wife of Charles Clement, once owned the property, which is now the site of the Herald-News building at Scott and Van Buren streets, and that this prop- erty was purchased by the Herald-News from Genevieve Ste- venson and Cordelia Ensign, granddaughters of Charles Clem- ent, one of the founders of the pioneer paper of the county, which by successive newspaper mergers is today a constituent part of the Herald-News.
The Courier was purchased by William E. Little in 1843 and the name changed to the Joliet Signal, under which name the paper was published until it was merged into the Joliet News in 1899.
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The Joliet News was founded in April, 1877, by Charles H. Dutcher, who in November of that year sold the paper to James H. Ferriss, R. W. Nelson and H. E. Baldwin, the latter now a member of the Herald-News advertising staff.
The Joliet Record was founded in 1870 by Henderson broth- ers, John, James, and Daniel. In 1880 W. W. Stevens bought a half interest in the paper, and in 1883 acquired the other half interest, continuing the publication of that paper until 1899, when the property was taken over by, and consolidated with, the Joliet News.
A number of other newspapers not mentioned in this article were merged into the News and the Republican within the memory of our readers, but it will be seen by the newspaper mergers referred to that the Herald-News today is, in fact, a continuation of the pioneer newspaper of Will County, the Joliet Courier, founded in 1839.
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
"Fever and Ague."-The most common ailment of the pio- neer days was "fever and ague." It was obsolete fifty years ago and had practically disappeared twenty-five years before that. The following account is from "History of Will County" published fifty years ago.
"True, we never could boast of such a prevalence of it as they could in Michigan, where, it was said, the church bells used to be rung in order that the people might know when to take their quinine. But it used to be considered one of the things that was necessary to constitute a man a settler, the other being the prairie itch. The writer well remembers his first hug at the ague. He had been in the country some three or four years, and had often laughed at the exhibition which others made while undergoing "the shakes," and felt himself proof against it. He had gone through various other stages of Western experience; he had had the prairie itch; had come to the age of citizenship, if not of discretion; had bought a city lot and paid taxes; had run for office, and got elected; had gone back East and got a wife; and yet had never had the "ager"!
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One beautiful September morning, in the year 1838, he thought he would show the little woman he had persuaded to come back with him, some of the beauties of the country. This could be done in no better way than by a ride to Channahon, or the "mouth of the Du Page," as we then called that locality. Accordingly, in the early morning, with a horse and buggy, we set out. We could say "we" now with propriety, and we were not a little proud of it, and that was one reason why we were going, to show our cousin Minerva-Mrs. Risley- who we were. The morning was fine and bracing. We antici- pated much pleasure. For what is more delightful than a drive into the country when the roads are good, the horse fast and sure, the air balmy and cool, and the dearest little woman in all the world by your side! We have said that the morning was cool and bracing. It soon began to feel quite cool, and so the writer remarked to his wife. She said she was warm enough. We rode a little farther, and, though the sun got higher, it seemed to grow increasingly cold. In short, it grew colder and colder, as the sun got higher and higher, a phe- nomenon that seemed inexplicable. Presently, he felt an irre- sistible desire to yawn and stretch both his upper and lower extremities. There was hardly room to do this; out went his legs over the dashboard, while his arms went over the seat and around his wife, and pushed out right and left, promiscuously. And still it grew colder and colder. He put on the heavy blan- ket coat, which, fortunately, he had brought along, and his wife's shawl, which she said she did not really need. But it all did no good; the stretching and gaping continued, and even his teeth began to chatter, and to crown all, he shook-yes, SHOOK; oh, how he did shake! and, incredible as it may seem, he shook all over and to the remotest extremities, and, like great Caesar's, "his coward lips did from their color fly." And all the while, the little wife said she was warm enough. If she had not been the dearest little woman in all the world, he would
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have been provoked to see her sit there as warm and com- fortable as in July, while he was experiencing January and February condensed. But by this time she began to wear a look of anxiety at the strange contortions of her husband. One more resource remained. Giving the reins to his wife, he got out to try what exercise would do, and told her to whip up, while he traveled on behind, with his hands hold of the end of the buggy. He followed this up until too leg-weary to con- tinue it, and it seemed to do little good. He could not get warm, and still he gaped and stretched, and chattered and shook, and all the time he had not the least suspicion what the matter was.
After riding on a while longer, his sensations gradually underwent a change. Hot streaks seemed to alternate with the cold ones. The gaping and stretching seemed to moderate, and other sensations took their place. A slight headache came on, and he felt a suspicion of nausea. The pallid and puckered appearance of the countenance gave place to flushes. The weather seemed to undergo a change. It grew suddenly warm. Off goes the shawl and blanket overcoat. He asked his wife, presently, if it was not getting hot, and was almost provoked at her cool reply that she did not see much change. But it certainly was getting hot, he knew it was, and off goes his undercoat. He became thirsty, and longed, oh, how he longed, for water. Strange ideas and fancies were passing through his mind, and he began to talk strangely and loquaciously, al- most incoherently. The little wife looked more troubled and anxious than ever, and wondered what had come over her se- date and usually silent husband. Presently he began to feel strangely tired, listless and uneasy, and to long for a good bed and rest and sleep. And now, fortunately, the comfortable log house of Risley appears in sight. Oh, how welcome! With no little exertion he gets out, leaves his wife to look after the horse, and soon occupied the whole of Mrs. Risley's lounge, and
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one or two chairs besides. When he and his wife between them had given an intelligent account of what had been happening on the way, Mrs. Risley says, 'Why Hen! you have got the ague!' Great guns ! here was a revelation indeed. After all his boasted immunity from the ague, his defiance of it, the enemy had stolen the march upon him, and here he was, lying prostrate and humbled before it. And even yet he was not done with it; another stage of the disease comes on, the nastiest of the three. The half-delirious fever passes off, and he begins to perspire. Perspire! that is no name for it; let us use the more homely but expressive word-he begins to sweat. Ah, how he sweats! It seemed as if all the water in his body-and physi- ologists say every man has two or three buckets in him (al- though we have seen some men we don't believe have a gill of water in them)-it seemed, we say, as if all the water in his body was coming to the surface, and not much sweeter than the Chicago River. And so he continued to sweat, sweat, sweat, for a good hour, saturating towel after towel, until exhaustion closed the scene and he slept. When the afternoon was well- nigh spent, he awoke, refreshed, and was able to do some little justice to Mrs. Risley's fricaseed chickens and doughnuts, and to start home, an humbler if not a wiser man; and subdued in tone and spirit, a little the worse for the encounter, and with the cheering prospect of a recurrence of the experience in one, or at most, two days.
A Dwelling .- A dwelling of the character in use in the pio- neer days would now be considered a novelty. They generally consisted of a pen, from sixteen to twenty feet square, built up of small logs, notched at each end, to admit of others lying thereon. The pen was built to the height of about ten feet, and divided into a lower and upper room by joists of small logs covered with boards split from the bodies of straight- grained trees. Sometimes the upper room was dispensed with,
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and the single room answered the purpose of kitchen, pantry, parlor, dining-room, bed-room and cellar. Floors were not considered indispensable, and Mother Earth herself was the floor and carpet. A bedstead has been described to us as con- sisting of two poles driven into holes bored into the logs which formed the wall of the building, and supported at the other ends by a stake driven into the ground. A bedcord was made of bark stripped from the body of a hickory tree. Windows were glazed with panes made by saturating strong white paper with grease. This made a fine substitute for both glass and curtains, for, while it admitted the light, it also prevented the direct rays of the sun from entering, being translucent with- out being transparent. The roof of the dwelling was con- structed of split shingle-an article scarcely known at the present-held in their places by poles laid thereon.
"Pioneer Days in Will County."-(By Hon. Amos Savage of Homer, delivered at Old Settlers' Reunion in 1898. Published in Joliet News in that year.) Deacon Savage, the father of Amos, came to the Yankee Settlement in 1833. In 1836, his son, Amos Savage, settled in the same neighborhood. He en- tered the Civil war as a private and came out a captain.
In his speech he contrasted the pioneer of today, moving west in a freight car, and the pioneer with his slow going team of those days-the lack of markets, roads and bridges. In his own case the postoffice was at Fort Dearborn, three days' travel and the nearest supply station was on the Wabash. His father once worked out and earned enough wheat for a grist, and took it to Hobson's mill on the DuPage. After several days he returned, but no grist-too many were ahead of him. He sent for it again and again, but the miller never reached it, and finally it was lost, bags and all.
He pictured the sufferings of those times, when horses and cattle died of starvation, when strong men wept at the suffer-
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ings of their beasts, and when there was want in the house- hold; but it was not altogether bad in those days. Those times had a bright side, and there was a great deal of comfort in the old log cabins. His father had a log house 18x18. It had a south door and east and west windows, and when a possessor of untold wealth came with an auger and a saw to make them a north window, they were as happy as they could be. They had as much as their neighbors, and who could want more?
He was nine years old before he had to beat a carpet, and he could not remember as his mother ever scolded him for leaning back against the wall and tearing down the lace cur- tains. He was quite a big boy before he lifted a pillow sham and he hated to do it yet. In fact he was inclined still to the good old log cabin days and believed they were the happiest of his life. Speaking of the scarcity of fruit he told a story on his uncle Ami Streeter. A man with an arm full of apples, noted for his saving qualities, met him at Fort Dearborn one day and said, "Gosh, Ami, just been buying some apples, taste this one and give your boy a taste," handing out at the same time an apple he was chewing at.
The husking bees, pumpkin pies and fried cakes (not dough- nuts) to him were closely entwined-also the girl that made the pies and the young man hunting for red ears.
The remainder of his story related principally to farm ma- chinery-the wooden mold board plow, the sickle, scythe, cra- dle, and flail. The first cast steel plow was invented by Uncle John Lane, a resident of the county to whom he thought a monument should be raised, if not of stone, at least in the hearts of his countrymen. Deacon Snapp had the first threshing ma- chine. It threshed one hundred bushels in a day and the clean- ing was done afterwards. Henry was the first feeder and he was a good feeder, too ("I am yet," said Mr. Snapp), and fed with all his might. How I wondered at him, said the speaker,
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as he turned the bundle first this way and then that, and then hurled it through the cylinders.
Of Father Beggs, said Mr. Savage, he was our first preacher and no camp meeting, or religious thought of the old times is complete without him. Verily he was like the voice of one crying in the wilderness-strong, young, vigorous, type of the pioneer Methodist, and I thought as I viewed the elegantly equipped camp meeting grounds at New Lenox the other day that we had just as good meetings then-God bless this old grey head, said he, touching Father Beggs at his right.
Mr. Beggs responded by saying that often in their old camp meetings they had their last sinner down.
Hon. Henry Snapp followed in a humorous speech, well stocked with statistics and sermons. He reviewed the settle- ment of the county from the time Joliet and Marquette in 1673 explored the Des Plaines River and told of the buffalo bones he and Charley Weeks used to find out on the prairies, when they were wading about with pants rolled up to their knees, and not very much pants at that. Eggs, he said, sold in Lock- port during the wild cat days, when we did not have the best money in the world-a greenback based on the faith and credit of the nation-at three cents per dozen and wheat for twenty- five cents per bushel.
The Bee Hunters .- Early conditions in those early days are not easy to vision by the people of 1928, surrounded by so many luxuries and conveniences that one scarcely knows what efforts were required of the first settlers. The bee-hunter was a well known character in those early times. He was able to track a bee on the wing loaded with honey. Her hidden storehouse was soon found. A good ax and willing muscles soon felled the tree and enabled him to gather the stored sweets.
One time some Joliet ladies made up a party to visit the bee- hunter in his cabin to enjoy biscuits and honey. He had in-
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vited them many times. The wife of a well known judge, a bride from Lowell, Massachusetts, went with the party. This bride accepted the invitation, saying that she was very fond of honey. As the party drew near the cabin in the edge of the timber, they were surprised to see four big, bouncing girls come out of the house with divers articles of apparel in their hands, and disappear behind some haystacks. They conjec- tured what the reason was on entering the house and finding that it consisted of but one room, in which all the operations of eating, cooking, sleeping, washing, and dressing had to be performed; and when, after a little, the girls re-appeared dressed in their best "Turkey red", to assist their mother in entertaining the visitors, they understood the meaning of the sudden exit of the girls. Mrs. Wilson to whom everything was new, wondered what the girls did when they had no haystacks. She studied, too, on the problem how all the persons that seemed to belong to the family would be disposed of in those two beds, never dreaming that the pegs which projected from the wall in one corner were the means of ascent to a loft above, where the boys could sleep. She wondered, too, where the honey and other family stores could be kept, as there was no indication of closet or pantry to be seen. Mrs. Wilson kept close watch of every movement and soon saw where they kept things. The good hostess drew forth from under one of the beds an old fashioned cradle, which, being released from its normal use, was compelled to do duty as a flour chest. In this she mixed up the quick biscuits which were to serve as the vehicle for the honey; and she and her girls drew forth from the same mysterious region, the various articles necessary to spread the board, and among the rest, the vessel containing the honey. Presently all were invited to "draw up." All "drew up" but Mrs. Wilson. She was not accustomed to frontier life and had seen so much and caught so many glimpses of the mysterious regions where they kept things, that she suddenly
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remembered that biscuits and honey did not agree with her. She was filled with astonishment as she saw biscuits and honey disappear.
Old Fort .- The first settlers encountered the Indians of whom they were always suspicious. Usually the Red Man was friendly until he was aroused by the treachery of the White Man or by the White Man's whiskey. Thus it came about that forts were numerous. The scare which came with the Black Hawk war produced forts in and about Joliet even though the war never came this far. The Pottawattamie tribe remained friendly throughout and aided the White Man. Fort Nonsense was built just west of Bluff Street on the site of 306 North Broadway of today (1928). It was called Fort Nonsense be- cause it contained no provision for water or food. It might have been called Fort Nonsense because it was so foolish a thing to build it when it was not needed. Another fortification was in Reed's woods. No record is found that it was ever used. There was a fort at Kankakee to which many of our people went in the panic which overtook them. Another was at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, to which a few from the Yankee settlement went.
An ancient fort is found in the east part of the city park which was formerly the Higinbotham woods. The exact loca- tion is, 500 feet west and 75 feet south of northeast corner of the west one-half of the southeast fourth of section 8 in Joliet Township (T. 35 N. R. 11 E.) The Higinbotham woods was an 80 acre tract which was untouched by the axe until 1918 when it was stripped. This 80 acre tract was deeded to the city for a park two or three years after that. At this writing second growth timber is coming along very nicely. The old fort is in the northeast corner of this 80 acre tract.
No one knows the builders of this fort and no one knows what use was made of it. It might be named Fort Mystery.
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Usually it is spoken of as Fort Higinbotham. It was surveyed many years ago and was found to be 120 feet by 146 feet of an irregular outline. Within the fort were found White Oak trees, 300 years old. The question naturally arises, did they grow after the fort was built? One is inclined to think that they did. Banks of earth banked one and two feet high still remain with ditches on each side indicating how the embank- ment was made. Within the walls are three cavities indicating that the garrison had a well, a magazine or storehouse, and a shelter cave.
South of this fort along the high land adjacent to Hickory Creek was a favorite residence section for the Indians. When the Whites first came, an Indian village was found extending along Hickory Creek from what is now the east edge of the village of New Lenox. This tribe was always friendly with the Whites. One may assume that the old fort was built by French traders who traveled this way and who sought the trade which came to the Indian village. They may have been distrustful of the Red Man and may have established the fort as a res- idence and retreat in case of danger. Another guess is that it was built by the people who preceeded the Indians known to the Whites. If this were true it goes back a number of cen- turies. One guess is as good as another. In this connection we present an account of the ancient fort which was written by James H. Ferriss and published in the Herald-News, Febru- ary 28, 1926. Mr. Ferriss' article rambles a great deal but it is given in its entirety because it contains many points of inter- est.
In Mr. Ferriss' article he speaks of the mound in Oakwood cemetery. He says that it was a town hall site for the tribe. That he was wrong is proved by the excavations which were made in the summer of 1928. These explorers decided that the large number of bodies in the mound indicated that some sort of a pestilence carried off large numbers of the people. It is
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estimated that this mound contains between 350 and 400 bodies. However, this is spoken of in another chapter and need not be repeated here.
The following is the article by Mr. Ferriss:
"In the Higinbotham Woods, near the northeast corner, is found an ancient fort, of which very little is known. It was staked out by people with a compass, or at least an accurate knowledge of direction; perhaps by accident. As will be seen by its mapping it stands true with the north star.
"It was not a large fort, or stockade, as it contains less than an acre of ground. The walls are now only three or four feet above the forest level, and the ditches not more than two or three feet below.
"Fifty years, more, or less, a survey was made by our anci- ent surveyor, Mathieson, if I have spelled the name correctly, and I think at a later date by his successor, Adam Comstock. The first survey located excavations of supposed magazines, wells and underground shelters. The one here presented, loan- ed to me by William H. Zarley, heir of an ancient Joliet tribe and of all the county surveyors, designates white oak stumps which are about 300 years old.
"Note the sally port at the southwest corner, closed by the artist, but in reality closed only by the falling walls. Here was the point where the deseiged could dart out for a moment or two and scatter their assailants if there were not too many of the latter.
"The eastward arrowpoints on this southern boundary probably designates a tower for sharpshooters who could thus protect both sally port and the gate at the southeast corner.
"Who built this fort? The park fans would like to know. In the early days of LaSalle, historians tell us of the forts built by the French government and the fur traders.
"As it runs in my mind there were 75 government forts be- tween Montreal and the lowest on the Mississippi river. The
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French and English fur traders later were not always friend- ly, and the Frenchmen built more forts, as that type of con- struction seemed to run in that nationality.
"One of these historical things was built at the mouth of the St. Joe river in Michigan. Crossings were made from the Joliet Lake, down here by the electric light plant to St. Joe, an- other at Chicago, another at the Sag. There are two at Starved Rock, one on the rock, another very large one-half mile or so back in the flat woods, also another at Peoria. These were known to be military ports, occupied or assaulted by some of our own ancestors-St. Joe, Chicago, Starved Rock and Peoria.
"It runs in my mind that there were more in between. Trappers and packers going up or down stream had to have well protected sleeping places at the end of a day's journey. Probably the Sag fort is also of this class.
"Just a few months ago the late Louis Gougar told me that when his father, Daniel, settled upon government land on Hic- kory creek, near the long bridge, Gougar's crossing of the Rock Island, that they were in the midst of a large Indian village, three miles long, reaching from the present Michigan Central tracks to Spring creek. The barns of the Gougar estate occupy the site of the old Indian burying ground. Thus, my own thought is that one park fort was a traders' or trappers' fort, located not in, but near by to this Indian village, a custom with later Indian traders.
"On the south side of the Frances road in the Higinbotham woods, was another so-called fort, occupied during the lifetime of New Lenox families. Only a few pieces of limestone used for a surface foundation to the building remains.
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