USA > Illinois > Jo Daviess County > The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States > Part 58
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George Troxell, David Matlack, H. Willard, H. Singer, and John Crumbellick, were appointed arbitrators, and the gentlemen present pledged themselves to each other to " use all just means in our power to sustain the decisions of the arbitrators for this township, and to abide by such decisions in all cases in which we are interested."
The meeting adjourned to meet at Dixon on the morning of the first day of the land sales, prepared for two weeks active service.
The claimants of the public lands in township 28 north, range one, east of the 4th principal meridian, held a meeting at Mount Hope Meeting House on Tuesday, the 5th day of February, A. D. 1847, and adopted a ' constitution and by-laws similar to the provisions above quoted. The arbi- trators chosen under the proceedings of that meeting, were Samuel Hugh-
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lett, A. Snyder, Michael Byrne, R. S. Norris, Charles G. Thomas, Patrick McAllen, and S. M. McMaster. The following was their written pledge:
" We hereby pledge ourselves to each other, that we will use all just means in our power, to sustain the decisions of the arbitrators for this township; and that we will abide by such decisions as they shall make, in all cases in which we are interested."
To this pledge ninety-two signatures were attached, only three of which were by " his X." In no case was the pledge violated. No appeal was taken from the decision of the arbitrators-no "motion made for a new trial." Many of the ninety-two whose names grace the book from which the pledge is copied, still remain in the county, and have always been use- ful and influential citizens.
Fires .- Galena has never suffered seriously, but once, from fires. On 3 o'clock on the morning of April 1, 1854, a fire broke out in M. O. Walker's stage stable, situated on Commerce Street, in the rear of the next block north of the De Soto House. The fire extended, northward across Main, Washington, and Bench Streets. Thirty-two buildings were burned, com- prising a large part of the business part of the town, and including St. Michael's Church, on the opposite side of Bench Street. Among the build- ings destroyed was the office of the Courier. The total loss estimated at $300,000. The Gazette of that date attributes the fire to an incendiary.
River Improvements .- In 1854, various projects were discussed for im- proving the navigation of Fever River, and it was seriously proposed to construct a dam and lock of seven feet lift, at, or near, its mouth. It ended however, as it began-in talk.
The present winter (1877-'8), Congress was petitioned and strongly urged to include Galena River,in the appropriations for harbor and river improvements, with some hopes of success. M. Y. Johnson was sent by the Galenians, as a delegate, to present the subject, and urge it upon the attention of Congress. He labored earnestly and faithfully, and received many assurances that the appropriation would be made.
Casualties .- On the 18th day of August, 1868, a sad and melancholy accident occurred on the Illinois Central Railroad, that brought sorrow and death to several homes in Galena. The particulars of this terrible event, we gather from a pamphlet published a few days after its occurrence, the facts of which were compiled from the Galena Democrat:
At about 8 o'clock on the morning aforesaid, Conductor James Woods started out from Galena with his ditching train, consisting, at the time, of two dirt cars, destined for Apple River. He had some thirty workmen on the train, most of whom occupied the second car from the engine. The train was " backing up." When rounding a curve, within about half a mile of Council Hill, and going, at the time, at a full rate of speed, they collided with two detached cars, which were approaching from the opposite direction, at a rate, it was thoughit, of thirty miles per hour. They were both heavily loaded; the first with railroad iron, the second with a cast iron wheel, of 4,500 pounds weight. Owing to the curve in the road, thie detached cars were not perceived by the men, until they were within two or three rods, and as the larger number were old men, the instinct of self-preservation had not time to take any definite action. A horrible crash-the heavy, iron rails were pushed forward-the large iron wheel rolled forward, and Thomas Boyd and Michael Niland were still in death. Mr. Boyd with his head crushed to jelly. Patrick Maghan, a young man of twenty-one years, had his skull fractured, and an arm horribly mutilated. He survived but a few hours. Mr. Thomas Mulligan, Cornelius Howe, and Mr. McClann, were also injured, it is feared fatally. The others, by jumping, managed to escape fatal injuries, but were more or less hurt. Mas- ter M. Birmingham, one of the injured, who escaped with the loss of five teeth, said that he had no thought of jumping from the car, but rushed to the forward brake of the rear car, thinking that with that support he could stand the shock. He was picked up after the collision in an insensible condition, close by the engine, having been thrown more than the length of the car. So soon as the engine could be run back to Galena, Drs. Hempstead, Campbell
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and Newhall, accompanied by Father Power, were brought to the relief of the wounded. But one, only, of the three first fatal cases, then needed their help, and that was young Maghan. Upon consultation, it was decided to amputate his fractured arm, but his sufferings were ended by death before they were ready to commence the operation. He died calling on liis mother, but his last audible words were: "lay me down to die." A jury was summoned and an inquest held, by two Aldermen of Council Hill. The jury rendered a verdict in ac- cordance with the facts herein stated.
At half past nine, the morning after the catastrophe, three hearses, carrying the bodies of three of the victims, were slowly driven up Main street, and came to a stand before the Church of St. Michael. On either side of the hearses were the pall-bearers-those by the body of the young man were youths, and some of them fellow-companions of the deceased, when he was in life but yesterday. The chief mourners were driven in carriages, and a long retinue of sympathizing friends were in attendance. The scene, as the three bodies were carried in close succession into the church, was profoundly impressive. The poor widow of one of the aged victims, borne, almost fainting up the long steps of the church; the blanched countenances of all those nearest kin to the dead; and the hundreds of specta- tors, moving slowly up, with the bearing of deep sympathy, all tended to produce a sensa- tion which will not soon be forgotten.
The deceased were all members of the St. Michael's Church, and hence their funeral rites were served at one and the same time, in that church, Father Power officiating.
The solemn and impressive ceremonies were concluded with an address by the Rev. Pastor, in which he spoke eloquently and feelingly.
The Blue Ribbon Movement .- The tidal wave of the Blue Ribbon. Temperance Reform Movement reached Galena the first days of October, 1877. Under the labors and directions of Messrs. Hoofstetter and Rowell, a reform was inaugurated that promises to result in great good. As showing the effect of this movement, the following figures are presented, showing the falling off in the consumption of beer in Galena from October 1, 1877, as compared with the same period in 1876:
In October, 1876, 456 barrels were consumed; in November do., 382; in December do., 424. Total in three months, 1,262 barrels.
In October, 1877, 250 barrels were consumed; in November, 198; in December, 266. Total, 714-a falling off of 548 barrels. Reduced to gallons, the falling off was equal to 17,536 gallons. Reduced to glasses, and estimating twenty glasses to the gallon, the cash falling off in the beer trade for the three months named was equal to $17,536.
A Reform Club was organized October 11, 1877, and continues in good working order.
FINALE.
The Buffalo- When Did They Disappear ?- When the first settlers came to the Fever River region, there was but little underbrush in any part of the country. Its growth had been kept down by the Indians, who started fires for that purpose, that their hunting grounds might be the less obstructed. Forty years ago this Winter (1877-'S), says Captain D. S. Harris, I was out hunting with an old Indian, and we caine to an open prairie or plain, to one portion of which my attention was particularly directed because of its circular form and the heavy growth of old weeds and grass within it. I applied to my Indian companion for an explanation, and he gave me this traditionary solution :
"Seventy years ago this Winter (1838) was the coldest ever known. During the Winter a heavy, deep snow came on. and the buffaloes were snowed in. The snow fell so deep they could not travel, and in making the attempt they went round and round, just like a white man when he becomes lost on the prairies or in the woods. The snow was so deep and remained so long, that they fell exhausted and starved or froze to death. Their car- casses decayed and enriched the ground where they died, and so the weeds
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
and grasses, different from those natural to the prairie, came to grow over their bones. After that Winter the buffalo left-crossed the Mississippi, and none have ever been seen on the east side of the great river since."
Captain Harris says within the circle and beneath the old grasses, and weeds, and mould, there were a few remnants of bones, and that he has every reason to believe the Indian's traditionary narrative to have been cor- rect. If true, the disappearance of the buffalo from this part of the country may be fixed at one hundred and ten years ago, or in 1768, as any one can determine by the application of a little arithinetic.
Any one who has noticed the fact that on a wild spot of ground where an animal has died and decayed, a new growth of grass and weeds, different from those natural to the ground, will spring up, will see the reasonable- ness of Harris' Indian companion's theoretic explanation for the growth of weeds in the circle to which his (Harris') attention was called, while on a hant "forty years ago," whatever of credit may be given to the remainder of the tradition.
The Weather .- The Winter of fifty years ago-1827-'8-was so mild and open that, on the 25th of February, 1828, the steamer Josephine ar- rived at Galena from St. Louis, bringing a cargo of flour-an incident related elsewhere. The present Winter seems to be equal to that one in tempera- ture. At no time has the Mississippi been closed with ice for more than a few days at a time. For the greater part of the time it has been as open and as free to navigation as in the summer months. The roads to the country have remained almost impassable from the tinie Winter commenced, while the streets of Galena have either been dry or sloppy nearly every day from the first of December to this, the 28th day of February. Only on one or two occasions was there a sufficient fall of snow to justify an attempt at sledding or sleigli-riding, and that for but a few hours. The ice harvest is a failure-in fact the Winter of 1877-'8 may be set down as a season of ice famine to the people of Galena.
DUNLEITH
THE LIBRARY OF THE
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
DUNLEITH.
A correct history of Dunleith can not be written without going back to the period when white people first disturbed the primitive condition of the towering bluffs and the narrow valley that nestles down between their base and the great Mississippi River. Although a French Indian trader named D'Bois is known to have maintained a trading post on the land now owned by Augustus Switzer, two and a half miles east of Dunleith, and almost directly opposite the Iowa bluffs where Julien Dubuque (after whom the City of Dubuque was named) was buried, no data can be found to fix the time when this trading post was estab- lished, or how long it was continued. The best sources of information indicate that Dubuque and D'Bois came at the same time, and that, while Dubuque stopped at the mouth of Cat Fish Creek, on the Iowa side, D'Bois (or Dubois) chose the Illinois side as his field of operations. When the first permanent settlers came, in 1832, the old cabins erected by D'Bois were still standing, and although they had fallen into partial decay, one of them was refitted and made to serve as a school house for the first school ever taught in the territory now embraced within Dunleith Township. The site of that old cabin is enclosed in the beautiful farm residence grounds of Augustus Switzer, and within a few feet of his summer house. That these cabins were allowed to remain so long after D'Bois abandoned them can only be attributed to the friendly disposition of the Menominee Indians, and the respect and friendship they entertained for their builder and first occupant.
Some authorities say that the island (now nearly gone) just below Dunleith, and almost directly between the Dubuque and D'Bois interests, was occupied by white men long before settlements were made at Galena-that rude (log) smelting works had been erected there by a Missouri miner named George E. Jackson as early as 1811. The island on which these smelting works were operated has been well-nigh washed away, and consequently the last remnant of Jackson's cabin and his log furnaces has disappeared with the island on which they were built. There are no data to be found to show how long Mr. Jackson occupied this island or the extent of his operations, but it is known that he built a flat boat on which the product of his furnaces was carried to St. Louis, and that he experienced a good deal of trouble with the Indians in making his trips to St. Louis. Neither is it known when Jackson abandoned the island, or the causes that induced him to give up his undertaking, but in the Fall of 1823 he returned to the mining district and settled at or near Galena.
Some authorities say that D'Bois and Dubuque came to the country together, but separated on their arrival, as already shown-the former opening an Indian trading place on the Illinois side, and Dubuque on the Iowa side of the Missis- sippi. While there are no records to be found showing the time when D'Bois built his trading cabin at the site already described, it is known that Dubuque was here as early as 1788, hence it is reasonable to suppose that D'Bois com- menced his operations simultaneously with Dubuque, and there is, but little reason to doubt that the first cabin built by a white man in the territory of Jo Daviess County was built by D'Bois, in what is now Dunleith Township, many years before white men began to work the lead mines at Galena. Add the fur- ther well authenticated statement that George E. Jackson occupied the island already indicated, and engaged in smelting lead ore as early as 1811, and the fact is pretty well established that the first white men to claim an abiding and
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business place within the present territory of Jo Daviess County were D'Bois and Jackson, and that within the territory now embraced in this township, the primitive stillness of a region now so full of life and business was first disturbed by the innovations of white men.
When D'Bois took his departure, either for other wilds, or the fancied happy hunting grounds of the Indians, among whom he traded, and Jackson and his associates (if he had any) abandoned the island, the country relapsed into its natural condition, and left the Menominee people "monarchs of all they surveyed," until the early Winter of 1831-'2, when Eleazer Frentress, a native of North Carolina, came into the township, and selected a claim of 320 acres at the site of the present Frentress homestead, and immediately set about the erection of a double log cabin. Mr. Frentress and his family, consisting of his wife and children, had emigrated from Wood River, in Madison County, near Alton, to the Galena district in the Spring of 1827. They took passage at Alton on board the steamboat "Indiana," and on the 7th day of April, of that year, were landed at the present site of the City of Galena. At that time, says Mrs. Frentress, there were not more than a half dozen cabins in the place, and. entertainment in any of them impossible to be secured. There was a keel-boat tied up at the landing, and that afforded all the shelter possible to be obtained, and that was placed at the service of the new comers. At that time there were glowing reports of the discovery of rich leads of galena in the vicinity of what is now Cassville, Wisconsin, and not finding things at Galena to his liking, and the keel-boat in which they had found shelter since their arrival on the 7th, being bound for Cassville, Mr. Frentress determined to go on there in pursuit of fortune. A man named Camp and his wife, who had also found shelter and a resting place on the keel-boat, accompanied the expédition, if it may be called such, and there is a very strong probability that Mrs. Fren- tress and Mrs. Camp were the first white women to venture into the untamed wilds of Wisconsin-especially in that part of it around Cassville. At this time Mrs. Frentress was the mother of two children-Thomas, aged four, and Lucy, aged two years-and it will require no very great stretch of imagination to recognize in Mrs. F. a courage amounting to heroism, when she assumed the risk of placing her babes and herself beyond the pales of civilization and at the mercy of hordes of Indians. The boat landed its passengers at a mining camp, very nearly where Cassville has been built, and there they were left to find shelter from the elements of the weather in the rude tents of the miners, and where they remained for a period of three weeks. At the end of that time they found their way to Grant River, and settled down to mining life in the near vicinity of Beetown. Here a company was formed, and active operations com- menced, and successfully prosecuted until the 4th of July, 1827, when there came an Indian scare, and the camp was hastily abandoned. On the morning of that day the men of the camp had gone to Cassville, and when they arrived there they found that a keel-boat descending the river had been attacked by the Winnebago Indians, one man killed and another one wounded. The cargo box had three hundred bullet holes within it, while the hull of the boat probably had as many more. At Cassville all was excitement and alarm. The Beetown miners hastily returned to their camp, and prepared to leave immediately for Galena. The women quickly packed what few bed-clothes, wearing apparel, etc., they had in boxes and trunks, which were secreted in a dense thicket near by ; a few provisions-a little bread and a little meat-put into a basket or sack for the children, and hurried arrangements made for a forced march to Galena. The camp possessed two horses-two women, two children and one sick or disabled man out of the fifteen who composed the male part of Beetown. The two women and one of the children were mounted on one of the horses and the sick man on the other. The cooking dinners were left over the fire, and at four o'clock the flight to Galena was commenced, and kept up until far
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into the night, when they reached a windfall, where the fallen timber, thick undergrowth, etc., so impeded their progress that, in the darkness they found it impossible to proceed further until daylight, and they went into camp-or rather, they halted until morning. As soon as it became sufficiently light to enable them to find their way out of the fallen debris, the flight was resumed, and a little after twelve o'clock, July 5, 1827, the party arrived at Galena, and Mr. Frentress and his wife stopped at the house and home of her father. The distance traveled, said Mrs. Frentress to the writer, was from fifty to sixty miles, every step of which was full of dreadful apprehension and terrible sus- pense.
When the Indian scare had somewhat subsided, Mr. Frentress went down to Peoria, where he remained about one month, when he returned to Galena, and soon after went back to the mines at Beetown, where he remained undis- turbed until he sold out his interests for $700 in the Winter of 1828-'9. The sum thus realized enabled him to fit himself out with a team of horses, a cow or two, and the necessary implements to engage in farming pursuits, and he leased or rented a farm on Fever River, about four miles above Galena, where he remained until he commenced the improvement of the claim already mentioned.
The Frentress Cabin was a double one, built out of round logs, and then " scutched " down. There was a hall, or entry, between the two parts, and, for 'many years it was regarded as the grandest farm house in all this region of country. Its doors were always open, and its beds and its table always free and welcome to every one who claimed its hospitality. Although Mrs. Fren- tress now occupies a very handsome brick residence, the "old log cabin " is still preserved as a memento of pioneer days.
The old cabin was finished in the Winter of 1831-'2, but was not occupied by the family until the 7th of September, 1832-after the close of the Black Hawk War.
In the Spring of 1832, as soon as the frost was out of the ground, Mr. Frentress commenced breaking the prairie sod with a view to making a crop. Potatoes, corn, etc., were planted, and the foundation of a home in the wilds of the Menominee and Sinsinawa Valleys commenced in goodly earnest. While Stephen D'Bois built the first cabin in this region, to Mr. Frentress belongs the honor of turning over the first furrow of prairie sod.
While the making of this pioneer farm was under way, the Indians were concentrating their forces with a view to negotiating a new treaty, the Black Hawk War was precipitated, and for a time the industries of the mines and farms were interrupted-in fact, almost entirely suspended. May 14, of that year (1832), while Frentress was busily at work on his claim, plowing and planting, his wife sent a runner .to him with the information that the Indians were reported to be marching on Galena with the threatened purpose of destroying every man, woman and child in the settlement. He unhitched his team from the plow, left it standing in the middle of a furrow, and hastened to Galena to join the forces that were being mustered to resist the apprehended invasion, and, joining Captain Vosburgh's Company, which was made to form a part of Colonel Strode's regiment, he continued with that command until a peace was conquered by the subjugation of the Indians. September 6, 1832, he was mustered out of service, and on the 7th, the goods of the family were packed and loaded into wagons and the journey to the new home commenced. There were neither roads nor crossing places on the streams. Trackways for the wagons had to be cut out and the banks of the streams dug away to afford crossings, and two days were consumed in making the trip of less than ten miles. On the afternoon of the 8th of November, 1832, the family moved in and took possession of their new home-a house built the Winter previous. Thus was commenced the settlement of that part of Jo Daviess County, which, in later years, came to be known as Dunleith.
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
About the same time that Frentress made his claim, Thomas Jordan made a claim on the banks of the Mississippi River, and to which he removed his family the same day that Frentress moved to his claim. For a number of years Jordan maintained a canoe ferry to the west shore of the Mississippi River to accommodate the little trade and the large number of mining explorers from Illinois and Wisconsin (then Michigan Territory), who looked forward to the time when they might have a legal right to occupy the lead mines which had been worked by Julien Dubuque from about 1788 to the time of his death in 1810. The occupancy of a claim at the present site of the City of Dunleith by the Jordan family, in September, 1832, establishes the fact that they were the pioneer settlers and the first white people to claim a permanent abiding place in a locality now so full of intelligence, business activity and manufacturing industries, and the site of a city that is known throughout the civilized world for its production of labor-saving machinery.
The Jordan cabin was built very nearly on the site now occupied by Sutter's livery stable, and the well in the street in front of that stable was dug by the Jordans soon after they occupied their pioneer cabin.
In the Spring of 1833, the Mattox family came in and settled about half a mile east of the Frentress family, and one by one settlers continued to come in and make claims, and build cabins and settle in the neighborhood, until there was quite a community.
In the Spring of 1832, two men named Boxley and Thompson made claims in the Callagan bottom, north of the Frentress place, broke some land and planted a few acres of corn. It seems that they paid no attention to the alarm that called Frentress from his claim on the 14th of May, and that they remained to cultivate their fields. While engaged in plowing their corn, they were fired upon and killed by the Indians. The exact date of these Indian murders, Mrs. Frentress does not remember, but thinks it must have been some time in the month of June, by reason of their bodies being found between two rows of corn where they were plowing.
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