USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > Past and present of DeKalb County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 9
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At the August election, John R. Hamlin was chosen clerk of the county commissioners' court, and Lysander Darling, county treasurer, in place of George H. Hill. William M. Maxfield was chosen county collector, Alphons Jenks. recorder.
In this year, the land in three northern town- ships which had previously been surveyed by the United States, was put in the market. It was a part of what was called the Rockford or Polish survey.
The United States government, in sympathy with the Poles who had just been overwhelmed in their contest for their independence by the power of Russia, had made a grant of a large tract of land on the banks of the Rock river to such of
that nation as chose to settle upon it. It was ac- cordingly surveyed some years earlier than most of this part of the state. Very few of that nation, however, availed themselves of this privilege. Claims had been made on the same land by other and earlier settlers. These combined to drive away the new claimants. Numerous little stock- ade l'orts were built with loop holes for muskets, and a determination was expressed to drive the Polish emigrants out of the country, and they were entirely successful. They never occupied their grant.
At Coltonville, the large two-story house still standing there was built this year for a tavern, and was opened with a grand ball in the autumn. To make a sufficient party, the whole country was summinoned. Some twenty of the guests came from Oregon, thirty miles west, and as many more fron St. Charles, twenty miles to the east.
We have had the pleasure of talking with one who came as a guest and this was at the time re- garded as the most notable social function of th? county. The dance lasted all night, and by morn- ing light many had become intoxicated. Whisky sold for a cent a glass at the tavern bar, but ou the whole, good order and merriment reigned su- preme. The music was the best ever danced to at - that time. It was a noted event.
In the summer of the previous year, a conven- tion was held at Ottawa to nominate candidates for the legislature. Delegates went from Orange. now called Sycamore, to see that men favorable to their point as the county seat should be nominated. and they selected William Stadden for senator and J. W. Churchill for the assembly. But they were disappointed in their men. At the winter's session, another act was passed anthorizing a vote upon the removal of the county seat.
The session laws in these times were not circu- lated till six months after the sitting of the legisla- ture. and before any opponents of removal were aware of the existence of such an act. the time had arrived for a vote upon the question.
A poll book was opened at Coltonville, a dozen votes or so were cast for removal to that place. and the terms of the law were considered to he complied with. The seat of justice technically was removed.
But Kellogg. the county commissioners' clerk. refused to deliver the books. He was arrested and
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tried before Justice Harvey Maxfield, and after a savage, wordy warfare, was discharged.
The total receipts and expenditures of the coun- ty this year amounted to the sum of four hundred and fifty-two dollars and fifteen cents, a very mod- erate amount considering that a courthouse had been constructed, and that. although built from another fund. it naturally increased some of the county expenses.
GAME OF PIONEER DAYS.
The boy or man, as he scours the prairies, the woods and the few undrained swamps for the game that is now so scarce. little dreams, perhaps, of the days when men, not now fifty. with a single bas- reled muzzle-loading shot gun or rifle did not need to wear out much boot-leather to bring home enough game for himself and neighbors.
The writer well remembers hearing John Mullen of Mayfield. tell how he and his son, Phillip, killed seven deer before breakfast in the early '50s. Wild cats were numerous in the woods and many of them were killed by the pioneers. The last one killed in our county so far as we know was killed on the farm owned by Albert Goff in Kingston township in 1885.
The last lynx killed in our county was in Squaw Grove in May. 1867. and previous to that they were dispatched in different portions of the county.
Here is a true story that smacks of trne pioneer days: At the Brush Point school house in May- field on presidential election. November. 1856. Houton Graham appeared with a heavy Kentucky rifle on his shoulder to vote for his favorite candi- date, Buchanan. Many of his admirers called hi'n "Buckanan," and some abbreviated it to "Buck." Hlouton Graham remarked after depositing his bal- lot that he had voted for "Buck" and now he would go into the woods and kill one: which boast was faithfully carried out and on the next day "Uncle Hout" had venison for dinner.
Who of the old residenters does not remember the millions of wild pigeons that on certain days in autumn almost darkened the sky in their south- ward flight. During those days the greenest hunter might sit hidden within shooting distance of some dead tree in the woods and shoot scores of them in a day. Their haunts in Kentucky and Tennessec were visited by many naturalists. Audubon tells
us that hundreds of limbs were broken beneath their weight. They have been thought by many to be now extinct, but their breeding places are now in the sparsely settled timberland regions of South America, and they have again appeared in the northern portions of Wisconsin and Michigan,
The stately sand hill crane is a bird of the past in this vicinity. They reared their young in the center of a large swamp out of the hunters' reach and built their nests in a conical mound made of rushes and swamp grass, and when hatched took them on their backs to the shore. The sand hill crane stood more than four feet when full grown, was difficult to hunt, and when wounded would fight desperately. Their flesh was considered a great delicacy. They would light on a high knoll where they could spy the approaching enemy and perform some queer antics which some have called a dance. They flew at great height and were exceptionally cautious, so that few indeed are the hunters who can boast of having killed one.
The water fowl are still seen. but not one-hun- dredth now of what they were a quarter of a een- tury ago.
In the middle sixties two men hid in some wil- lows near a pond on the farm of Wm. Wike and during one afternoon killed ducks enough to fill a wash boiler. Now Prof. Stout wears out three pairs of boots to kill one poor little teal duck.
The figure four, a trap devised for the capture of quail, destroyed its tens of thousands, and not until within the last few years, since they have been protected by stringent laws and the game wardens have brought them into this section fromn Virginia. has the familiar whistle of "bob white" been heard as in days of old. They are now quite tame, and during the winter feed around our barns. The crow now seems to be the most dangerous enemy of the quail and prairie chicken. They destroy the nests in large numbers. eating the eggs and very young birds.
Old settlers tell us that after grain was grown on the prairies these birds rapidly increased, bn! as soon as the crow in large numbers appeared and the hunters from city and town would camp out and destroy hundreds of quail and prairie chicken in a day or two. they rapidly disappeared. The crow is an enemy of every kind of bird and it must and is being reckoned with, for in many counties
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a bounty is given for the destruction of this pro- lific black thief of the winged tribe.
The streams abounded in most excellent varie- ties of fish, such as pickerel, bass, catfish, and other kinds, but they seined and speared until now the "Izaak Waltons" must be patient indeed if from our Kishwaukee we can even secure suckers or carp sufficient for our dinner.
The days of hunting for any game are practically over, and like the buffalo that once roamed over a greater portion of our country, the remaining va- rieties of the once innumerable beasts. fowl and fishes, songht by the hunters of the past are fast disappearing and with them that type of American known as the hunter and trapper with many traits of the Indian, who in the earlier days of national life made a soldier unsurpassed in the annals of war and made glorious our arms in the Revolution, War of 1812 and the War with Mexico.
In the early days of the DeKalb county pioneers when game abounded, many are the exciting inci- dents that were participated in by hunters long since gone to "the happy hunting ground."
When one realizes that a citizen now living ha- seen as high as thirty deer in a herd, and that they were as numerous almost as rabbits are now, we can see how rapid was the wanton destruction of this noble game, for in about a third of a century after Jack Sebree, our first permanent settler, made his home in Squaw Grove, they had disap- peared.
R. F. Watson of Franklin and Solomon Wells and William Driscoll killed more than one hun- dred of these animals, and at times counted one hundred and twenty-five in a drove. In cold weather when snow was deep the deer would often mingle with the cattle and feed on hay and grain, but the temptation of the hunter could not be resisted and his fate was certain on such occasions.
We. who are now two score years of age, can well remember how many of the barns, granaries and other farm buildings were ornamented with the antlers of the deer, and they were exhibited as a testimonial to the hunter's skill-much the same way in which an Indian warrior wore the scalps of victims to exhibit his military prowess.
During the severe winter of 1842 when the ground was covered for months with deep snow. and deer and other game sought the barnyard for food, hundreds of deer were ruthlessly destroyed.
To add to the discomfiture of this timid game, a thaw came which lasted for a day or two, and then came cold weather, making an icy crust over the snow, thick enough to carry a man, but not sufficiently thick to prevent the sharp hoof of 1 deer from breaking through.
At such times the deer, if unmolested, would make paths or runways leading from their usnal haunts to their feeding and watering places.
The morning after the freezing, W. Scott, who kept some hounds, George Wood, Sr., A. B. Green, S. Gregory and others from Genoa started for the woods west of town and in what is now Kingston. came upon their doomed quarry.
The fleet hounds soon overtook the poor animals plunging through the erusted snow and would nab and harry them until the bulldog would overtake the deer and seize them by the throat and soon end the struggle. In this way seven deer were dispatched in a few hours. Another early Genoa hunter well remembers how the wolves would easily kill the deer at such times, by hiding along the runways while others of the pack would chase them into the pitfall.
One of the exciting events of the early days in Genoa was a "wolf hunt" some time in the early '40s. This called out the men and boys generally. They met at the village of Genoa, then about as large and enterprising as any in our county, and chose a leader who took command. Those who car- ried no arms took horns and tin pans to "stir up the animals." They formed a circle many miles in circumference and began marching toward the center forming a corydon of men on horses and on foot, making enough noise for an Indian war dance while the unerring rifle was doing its deadly work on wolves, deer. an occasional wild cat. coons and other animals. But while wolves were the real ob- ject of this gathering, still their cunning, which far exceeds that of the fox, prevented the hunters from bagging more than a dozen, but the families represented by the hunters in this expedition had an abundance of provisions for several days.
Another wolf hunt in the town of Pierce was or- ganized at Grimm's woods, now used as a picnic ground. in the early '50s and their field of opera- tion was the prairie. but aside from one or two wolves killed the expedition accomplished but little aside from the fun and noise. The prairie was not a good field for such operations, so the sons of the
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prairie resorted to traps and poison, and on a few occasions when the mother wolf betrayed her home unconsciously while robbing the barnyard for the sustenance of her family. the young ones were dug up and destroyed.
The wolf is still here in large numbers, but his home is now in the woods. but he is seen almost daily by someone; and as his enemies increase in numbers his cunning increases with every woli generation. They are too sharp to be poisoned, they cannot be trapped. nor will they go inside at. inclosure of woven wire. In an carly day they made the night hideous with their howling. now (langers so common make them silent. The young wolf is schooled by the mother so that now a mod- ern wolf is a veritable Socrates compared with the wolf of a half century ago. so the wolf folk im- prove the same as the human race. What is true of this game is true also of the wild things gen- erally.
The year 1840 found De Kalb county increasing in population very rapidly. Those who now came were generally from the eastern states. The tide of emigration from southern Illinois, composed of people from Indiana. Tennessee and Kentucky was not so numerous as in years past. The year 1840 was known as one of bountiful crops and the prairie was then used largely for cultivation. but the grain was to be harvested by means of cradles and in many instances threshed out on threshing floors, horses being used to tramp out the grain. After all this labor the grain must be hauled to Chicago usually by ox teams and was sold for from twenty to forty cents a bushel. And the man con- sidered himself extremely lucky if after this jour- ev. which took four or five days. he found him- self possessed of enough money to pay his expenses and get the few groceries that were needed. The people from the southern states were a generous, hospitable people, but many of them lacked the shrewdness of the New Englanders and other citi- zens of northern origin.
Schools were established in 1831 in private houses and perhaps three or four were held at different places. In 1839 the land was surveyed north of the base line. which includes the town- ships of Franklin. Kingston and Genoa. This, with some territory north of our county. was known
as the Polish survey and was surveyed for the occupation of Polish refugees. but the Americans who settled here took pains to frighten them away and in some instances established cabins which served as forts to hold the territory in case of trouble. so that the Polish emigration to this part of the country amounted to but little. James H. Furman, who was afterward editor of the Sand- wich Gazette and had come from New York in 1840, taught school in what was then known as the Virginia and North Carolina settlement at Squaw Grove. There was one frame house in the settlement. that of Jack Sebree. All others lived in log cabins. "One double log house was a favor- ite resort for all the neighborhood and there he spent most of his time. Huge roaring fires of logs in fireplaces at each end of the room could hardly keep the winter chill out of the ill constructed dwellings. At night they slept between two featherbeds as was the custom in the southern country in the winter time. There was no furni- ture to speak of-most of them sat upon the floor or on slab benches and at meal time went out of doors from the sitting room to the kitchen. where bountiful meals were provided. for provisions were abundant. The women of these homes spun and wore woolen garments for the whole family beside doing the household duties and caring for the dairy. They only complained that their husbands would not raise flax so that they could have some tow to spin when there was no other work to do. There was a settlement of southern people in Franklin and Somonauk townships and in Paw Paw but most of the settlers who came after the '40s were from New York and New England." The country was still overrun with horse thieves and counterfeiters. There being no jails. the labor of confining the prisoners in sheriff's houses and other places as could be found was so burdensome that few arrests were made and when criminals were imprisoned the great effort was to get them to run away so as to relieve the county from the expense of their keeping. The county treasury was usually empty. County orders were issued for all expense and they were at great discount but as they were receivable for taxes little else could be collected and no money went into the treasury.
In the village of Sycamore. the county seat. the Mansion House, which was built by Captain Eli Barnes the previous year. was the center of popn-
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lation and it was crowded with patrons. In one corner of this building was a store kept by John and Charles Waterman, who moved their goods from their store north of the river, where the town had first been started and where in a little log cabin sixteen by eighteen feet they had first estab- lished business. The hotel was crowded with boarders, mostly young men who had come west to seek their fortunes. Many of them became well known and prominent in the history of the county. Among them were John, James, Robert and Char- les Waterman, afterward not only prominent in this community but in other parts of the Union, Robert Waterman becoming governor of Califor- nia. Charles Waterman was a wealthy merchant of Rockford, and James, at the time of his death. was the wealthiest man in DeKalb county. Here also was Reuben Ellwood, later a member of con- gress and Dr. Page. Frank Spencer. Jesse Rose, John R. Hamlin, afterward a prominent county official. and D. P. Young.
"They were a gay set as full of pranks and fun and practical jokes as ever a dozen wild fellows could have been. For some reason the hotel came to be called the Nunnery and went by that name for many years. it was a most inappropriate title for there was nothing more like a nun about it than the one hired girl in the kitchen. Indeed there were but three marriagable women in the place and when dances were held the country was searched for miles around in search of lady part- ners."
"The school was kept in the courthouse by a man named Dr. Bill and it was well attended. pupils coming from three or four miles to attend the same." This year was known as the great cam- paign of 1840. The financial depression of 1837 had wonderfully crippled the administration of Van Buren and democracy seemed to he at a low obb. Harrison had been a candidate four years previous and had not made a very substantial run and political sentiment seemed to be greatly di- vided. At the beginning of the campaign it had been stated that Harrison was an old pioneer and great favorite for political preferment. "preferring to remain in his log cabin and have plenty of hard cider to drink." This was taken up by the politi- eal adherents of Harrison and it became known as the log cabin and hard cider campaign. The political enthusiam which swept over the Union
did not fail to reach the little frontier settlements of DeKalh county. In the election of 1836 there was practically no organization of opposition to democracy in what is now DeKalb county, but then a precinct of Kane. The emigration from the east brought in a large number of whigs and they de- cided to hold a political meeting. Dr. Whitney of Belvidere, a prominent whig, delivered an address before a great whig assembly at the log cabin of Carlos Lattin, which stood on the site of the pres- ent Sycamore National Bank. Political enthu- siasm ran high and for the first time the democrats of DeKalb county had strong opposition. There was a procession formed, people came from twenty and thirty miles around and took the village by storm. Two or three of the precincts of the county gave Harrison a majority but the result of the vote polled is as follows: Van Buren, democrat, one hundred and ninety-seven; llarrison, Whig, one hundred and ninety-seven : Harrison, whig, one be noticed that this was the largest proportional whig vote of the county for many years following. At that time the elections were held more than one day and people did not have regular tickets but announced their preference orally.
The stage route from St. Charles to Sycamore was established this year and Timothy Wells and Charles Waterman were proprietors of the line. They had an elegant four horse coach and carried & large number of passengers over what is now the old state road, a distance of fifty-five miles. At the time of the meeting of the circuit court one hundred and five cases were disposed of. At this time DeKalb county had no lawyers but those present who took part from other counties and afterward became famous were: J. William Scan- mon, Norman B. Judd, Norman II. Purple, Judge Peters, from Peoria, W. D. Barry and S. S. Jones from St. Charles, Chapman and Allen from Ot- tawa, Nathan AAllison from Naperville and Asa Dodge from Aurora. The first indictment for selling liquor without a license resulted in ac- quittal-a precedent that has since been most faithfully followed. The county commissioners this year created twenty-four road districts and raised the license for grocery keepers to twenty- five dollars. It must be remembered at this time that grocery keepers also kept liquor, which was sold for about one-tenth of the price that is charged
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today and if a person bought a large quantity of goods "a drink of liquor was thrown in."
Some school districts were organized this year and trustees were appointed. The survey of 1839 had made three townships in the north part of the county, but they remained unnamed and the coun- ty still remained under county organization. Trustees for the sale of school lands were ap- pointed for townships 37, 38 and 41 in range 5, and Squaw Grove was the first town to dispose of its school lands. Had the sixteen sections of the several townships of the county been retained for school purposes the revenue raised therefrom at the present time would have been sufficient to pay the running expenses of all the distriet schools of the county. The elections were held at private residences, as no publie place such as schoolhouses and town halls had been built. Dr. Madden of Brush Point was again a member of the legisla- ture and he secured an act which was passed Jar- uary 3d of this year, to permanently locate the seat of justice for the county of DeKalb. The county seat which had been maintained at Syca- more for some time seems to have been removed from Orange. A vote of a dozen or so who had assembled thought it should be removed to Colton- ville, an election in pursuance of the law, but kept secret from the great mass of people. This scheme was hatched up by Dr. Madden and as session laws were not in possession of the people he gave no information of the election. When the final act of the legislature was passed great excitement pre- vailed. The still hunt of Dr. Madden had leaked out in the following way: A young man by the name of Gleason had been calling on a young lady previous to the election and he was informed by her that Dr. Madden had seenred the county seat for Brush Point. He was a partisan of Sycamore and immediately spread the alarm and Jesse Kel- logg and Evans Wharry were sent south to arouse the voters, and when the final vote was taken it was found that there were one hundred and forty- three votes against the removal of the seat of justice from Coltonville and two hundred and for- ty votes in favor of the removal of the seat of justice to Orange, now Sycamore, showing a favor of the removal of the seat of justice from Col- tonville of ninety-seven votes. There were also cast at the said election two hun- dred and seven votes in favor of Orange being the
seat of justice, and there were given at the election one hundred and thirty-seven votes in favor of Brush Point ; showing a majority of seventy votes in favor of Sycamore being the seat of justice. We have no record preserved of the names of the men who cast their votes which must have been a very complete poll and that shows less than four hundred representing the entire vote of the county. "Morris Walrod was at this time sheriff of the county and a very efficient officer he proved to be. To induce him to take and keep open the hotel at the county scat he was promised the office of sheriff, and the horse thieves and counterfeiters who infested the county found him a dangerous foe. It was during this year that he arrested one, Winthrop Lovelace, who was said to be one of that gang aud he was bound over for trial. Walrod kept him securely ironed by day and tied to a bedpost in a little room of the tavern and at night he was securely tied to Constable Alvah Cart- wright, who slept by his side. One night Cart- wright attended a grand ball at Coltonville, which was given at the completion of the Coltonville House, which still stands, and coming home fa- tigued, Cartwright slept unusually sound. When he awoke his prisoner was gone. A well-known citizen and suspected associate of the gang is sup- posed to have supplied him with a file, with which he eut his bracelets and escaped. But as he fled northward across the mill dam, when daylight came he was discovered. Parties got ont and searched the country for it was certain that he could not have gotten out of Norwegian Grove, the hunt lasting all day without success. Toward evening it was discovered that the tall grass near the mill dam had been parted. The trail was fol- lowed and the poor wretch was found sitting in the mill pond chilled nearly to death. It took several hours of smart rubbing to revive him. When he was finally brought to trial he escaped from the courthouse probably amid a crowd of his fellows of the banditti and was seen no more in this county. For many years it was the custom of the sheriff to keep his prisoners manacled but to hoard them at the same table with his travelers and other guests of the hotel. They came shuffling in at the first table and usually took the head and did honors to the other guests in their best style. It sometimes astonished strangers but was con- sidered all right by the regular boarders."
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