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 59
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This much by way of a history of the pioneer settlement of the Dunleith district, and we now take up some of the later events, although they are among the occurrences of half a century ago.
Emsley H. Frentress was the first male child born in the settlement, his birth occuring on the 10th of February, 1833. [He died on the 21st day of November, 1876.]
The first female child, according to Mrs. Frentress' best recollection, was Lydia Ann Mattox, now the wife of Duncan Cameron, of Oakland, California. The date of her birth is not remembered.
The first marriage was in 1836, when the rites of matrimony were solem- nized between Hayden Gilbert and a Miss Jordan.
The first school was taught in one of the D'Bois cabins, before mentioned. It was a subscription school and was taught by a man named Kennedy. The next school was taught in a small plank house, erected for the purpose on the Frentress place by the Frentress and Mattox families. These parties also employed the teacher and became responsible for his salary, although the chil- dren of the other families of the neighborhood were admitted.
The first religious meetings were held in this school house, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1838-'39. Revs. J. Crummer and James, who had been commissioned and sent to this part of Illinois, by the Conference district, of which it formed a part, as Circuit Riders. They held services alternately, and every body in the neighborhood were regular attendants. Services were not held regularly every Sabbath-sometimes once in two weeks, and sometimes not more than once a month.
The first deaths within the territory designated as Menominee Township, of which Dunleith formed a part until March, 1865, were the decease, by In-
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
dian murder, of Boxley and Thompson, in the Callagan bottom, in June, 1832. The first from natural causes, was the death of Zachariah Hoffman, who died of cholera, in 1833.
The first orchard in the township was planted by Mr. Frentress, in 1837. The trees were bought at Montague's nursery at Waddam's Grove, in what is now Stephenson County. To some readers it may seem a little strange that no orchard should be started until 1837, while the settlement of the township was commenced almost five years before, but this is explained by the fact that the Fever River Country was regarded by many people as only a mining coun- try, and entirely unsuited to agricultural or horticultural purposes, and that the early settlers were almost exclusively mining adventurers and specu- lators, who, when they first came, did not expect or intend to become permanent residents, nor to engage in any business not directly connected with mining.
The incidents so far related cover the early settlement of Menominee and Dunleith Townships. After the Indian troubles were permanently settled, in 1832, there was not much to disturb the conditions of pioneer life. For several years straggling Indians would come along, but the only annoyance they oc- casioned was in persistent begging and petty thefts. Claim hunters and settlers kept coming in, new cabins were built, new farms opened from year to year, until within ten years all the available land was claimed, and for the most part occupied. By-and-by the old cabins gave way to a better class of' buildings, and thus, without the occurrence of any thing of historical interest, the country - continued to improve and prosper, until the building of railroads came to be considered a measure of commercial necessity. Among the early railroad enterprises of Illinois, was the Galena and Chicago Union. January 7, 1846, a meeting of the representative men of the several counties along the line of the proposed road between the Mississippi River and Chicago, was held at Rock. ford, to consider the feasibility of buying out the interests of a New York com- pany, who had obtained a charter under the name and style of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company. This company had also obtained a tract of 1,000 acres of land on Dupage River, and, in 1838, had done some work on the prairie west of Chicago. This much being accomplished, the undertaking was left in abeyance. Some time in the latter part of 1845, Messrs. Ogden and Jones, of Chicago, negotiated with Messrs. Nevins and Matteson, for the purchase of the charter and franchises of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company, for $20,000. When the Rockford meeting of January 7, 1845, had assembled and organized, Mr.Jones, of Chicago, introduced the following resolution, which was adopted :
Resolved. If a satisfactory arrangement can be made with the present holders of the stock of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company, that the members of this convention will use all honorable measures to obtain subscriptions to the stock of said company.
This recitation covers the history of the beginning of that railroad, the completion of which, in later years, connected the Mississippi, at Dunleith, with Lake Michigan, at Chicago.
In 1850, Mr. Douglas, then a member of Congress, secured the passage of a law, making a large grant of government land to aid in the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad, the managers of which had become possessed of that part of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad between Galena and Freeport. And while the building of the last named road was well under way between Freeport and Chicago this large grant of land to the Illinois Central Railroad Company gave a new impetus to every enterprise of the country adja- cent to Dunleith. In June, 1855, this road was completed to the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, at the present site of Dunleith.
In 1849, there was but one house and one fishing shanty, at Dunleith, but by the time the road was completed, June 1, 1855, as many as fifty substantial
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buildings, many of them graceful brick structures, had been erected and were in waiting for the business the road was expected to bring.
The land on which the city was laid out was entered from the government by Augustus Gregoire, at the land sales at Dixon, in the Spring of 1847. By the death of Augustus Gregoire, Charles Gregoire, a brother, succeeded to the ownership of the land, fifteen acres of which he sold to the Railroad Company for railroad purposes-freight house, depot buildings, etc. In 1853, a town company, composed of George W. Sanford, Jonathan Sturges, Morris Ketchum, George W. Jones, George Griswold and Charles Gregoire, was formed, who were known as the Proprietors of the Town of Dunleith, to which company Charles Gregoire conveyed the northwest quarter of section 29, the southwest quarter of section 20 and fractional sections of 19 and 30, all in town 29 north, range 2 west of the 4th principal meridian, which was laid off into lots, blocks, streets, avenues and alleys, and named upon the plat and records, as Dunleith, in honor of Dunleith, Scotland. The. plat was filed in the office of the County Clerk (W. H. Bradley, clerk), duly acknowledged by Charles Gregoire, Decem- ber 14, 1853. The plat was made by John C. Goodyear, County Surveyor, certified and approved March 16, 1854, and recorded March 18, 1854. The first public sale of lots was had in the Summer of 1855, although some lots had been sold and occupied soon after the town was laid out. Frederick Jessup and Charles Gregoire were general managers for the proprietors, and Jessup the ruling spirit. In making sales of lots, Jessup imposed the condition that all purchasers of lots in Sinsinawa* Avenue should erect thereon nothing but three-story brick buildings, and that no spirituous liquors should ever be sold therein. Under these conditions, what is now the Commercial House and Post-Office building, at the corner of First Street and Sinsinawa Avenue, was built by Colonel James Robinson, for storage and commission purposes. A man named John Monti, of Galena, bought a lot on the corner of Second Street and Sinsinawa Avenue, and in 1855, erected thereon a three-story brick build- ing for a general store. This building was destroyed by fire in the Fall of 1877.
The first building erected on the town plat, after the town was laid out, was built by Charles Gregoire, for hotel purposes, and occupied a position on Wisconsin Avenue, a short distance above Sinsinawa Avenue. It was a two- story brick, erected in 1853, and at one time was known as the Bates House.
The first store, or trading place, was opened in 1854, by Charles Wheeler. Wheeler occupied a small frame shanty that stood on Wisconsin Avenue, almost opposite the hotel building erected by Gregoire, and which was first called the Dunleith House, but afterwards the Bates House, as already stated. In 18- John Clise opened a store in the Monti building, and where he continued in business up to 185 -. Holdorff was also a merchant during the same period, and in 1857 Augustus Switzer, who had engaged in farming in Menominee Township for several years (the earlier part of his life having been spent in mercantile persuits), purchased property in Dunleith, remained here and opened a store at the corner of Third Street and Sinsinawa Avenue, his present place of business. From that time forward until the bridging of the Mississippi be- tween Dunleith and Dubuque, business was good. Dunleith's star was in the ascendant. Lots ran up to almost fabulous prices. A number of grand enter- prises were projected and some of them commenced, but the beginning and completion of the tunnelt and bridge, in 1868, resulted in the derangement of many plans, threw many men out of employment and the means of making a living at Dunleith, and hence they were compelled to seek remunerative engage- ments elsewhere. The transfer of passengers and freight between Dunleith
* Menominee for Home of the Eagle.
+ The tunnel is 972 feet in length, and the bridge about 3.960 feet, or three-quarters of a mile in length.
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
and Dubuque was of itself sufficient to employ fifty or more men and a number of teams. But their occupation vanished when the first train of cars passed through the tunnel, and crossed the bridge to the Dubuque side, and thence onward toward the setting sun, to the lands of the Nebraskas and Dakotahs. From the time the railroad was completed, in 1855, up to the opening of the bridge, in 1868, the transfer business was heavy, and it is said that the gentle- man who managed the business for the transfer company (and the company was really composed of railroad officers who were prevented by statutory pro- visions from being known in its management), who was the ostensible president and owner of the stock, wagons and other appurtenances necessary to the business, realized, in clear cash, in the twelve or fifteen years the transfer traffic was continued, the handsome fortune of $182,000! Certain it is that from an employe in a Galena store, a few years before, he accumulated at least money enough to build one of the handsomest residences in Dunleith, and to venture on several undertakings that promised large returns, but all of which proved disastrous failures.
Among the other grand undertakings of the friends of Dunleith-of those who saw a bright future and a great city in the near advance of years-was the Argyle House, named after the Duke of Argyle, Scotland, a relative of the Jessup already mentioned as agent and manager for the proprietors of the town of Dunleith. The Argyle was built in 1855. It was a four-story brick, with stone basement, with a front of 145 feet on the railroad track, and 50 feet deep, covering an area of 7,250 feet. The object in building it was to accommo- date the railroad and river passenger traffic, and there is a strong suspicion that transit affairs were so managed as to detain travelers here over night, and thus " make it pay." But like the transfer business, when the bridge was completed the Argyle's glory departed. It has gone into decay. Its walls are dingy and brown. A few of its lower rooms are occupied as shops; and some of the upper rooms are occupied as residences by families, but for the most part it is · unoccupied and tenantless. When first opened, it was managed by a hotelier from Chicago, named Luce, and in its almiest days had no psuperior on the Upper Mississippi. For ten years or more it was the pride and glory of Dun- leith, but now its walls are blackened and weak, and its unoccupied rooms cheerless and dark.
Pro Bono Publico .- A Market House, with City Hall, was built in 1865. A Fire Company was organized about the sanie time, of which Augustus Switzer was foreman for a long time. A Fire Engine, Hose Cart and Apparatus, Fire Bell, Fireman's Silk Flag, etc., were purchased, without cost to the city, through a series of entertainments and balls, under the supervision and management of the Company's foreman.
EDUCATIONAL .- The original part of the present graded school building was erected in 1858. In 1864 an addition was made of sufficient size to afford ample room for fine, well conducted departments. This building is a plain, unpretentious brick structure costing only about $5,000. School is maintained about nine months of the year, during which the best educational talent to be had in the country is employed. There are 400 scholars (between six and twenty- one years of age) in the district (No. I) entitled to school benefits. Of these, 250 are enrolled. Out of this number there is an average daily attendance at this time (Jan., 1878), of 220. Robert A. Hayes is principal, assisted by H. P. Caverly, Grammar Department ; Carmie Daggett,. Intermediate ; Kate Paul, Second Primary, and Julia Joy, First Primary.
School Board .- C. S. Burt, President; John Buckley, Secretary ; John B. Chapman, Director.
CHURCHES .- The Presbyterians erected a small frame church in 1855, which was also used as a school house. This building gave way some years ago, and is now known only in name.
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
The Congregationalists commenced work here in 1861, and built a brick church edifice near the present school house. They occupied it until about 1870 or 1871, when they ceased, and sold their church building to the Metho- dists, who kept up regular services for about four years, when the society became too weak to maintain a pastor, and gave way before decreasing membership. The building is now occupied by the German Lutherans, who have regular preaching every Sabbath. They also maintain a well organized Sabbath-school The services and Sunday-school are conducted in the German tongue.
The Catholic Church edifice was erected under the management of Rev. Fathers Jarboe, Fortune and Bernard, in 1857, at a cost of $3,500. The con- tractor was William Melvin, a carpenter. He sub-let the stone work to James Muldowney, and the brick work to a man named Morrison. The church is a plain, substantial one, in which services are conducted every alternate Sabbath by the Rev. Father McMahan. The society has a membership of about 70 families.
NEWSPAPERS .- Dunleith had a weekly newspaper from June, 1857, to May, 1861-four years. The first few (5) numbers were printed in Dubuque, by the Flaven Bros., who named their paper the Dunleith Commercial. Advertiser. In August following the first issue, Mr. E. R. Paul, then of Potosi, Wisconsin, be- came interested in the publication, and removed hither a press and material, so that the sixth number, dated August 12, 1857, was printed entirely in Dunleith. In a brief time the Flaven Bros. retired, Mr. J. R. Flynn taking their interest. Flynn also withdrew in a few months, leaving M. Paul alone in its management. He continued to publish The Dunleith Advertiser until its discontinuance in May, 1861. At that time its patronage was transferred, as was also its pro- prietor, to the Galena Courier. No one has since ventured to establish a paper in Dunleith. The printing material was afterwards (in 1863 or '64), sold to parties in Lanark, Carroll County, this state.
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
Burt Machine Works .- The leading manufacturing industry is known and designated as above. They are not only the most extensive in Dunleith, but among the best known in the West, and are really the saving interests of the city in which they are maintained. This establishment was commenced in 1856, by D. R. Burt, father of C. S. Burt, as a manufactory of combined reapers and mowers, and were continued in that interest until destroyed by fire in 1863, which involved a loss of $50,000. Soon after the fire, the business was resumed in an old building near by, and during the early part of 1864 new buildings (the ones now occupied), were erected at a cost of $10,000, and supplied with the latest styles of machinery at an additional cost of $25,000. When opera- tions were commenced in the new buildings, they added the manufacture of shingle-machines to that of reapers and mowers, and the combined indus- tries were continued up to 1869, when the manufacture of reapers and mowers was abandoned, with the intention of making the manufacture of shingle ma- chines a specialty, but there came a demand from Dubuque parties for large numbers of the Julien Churn, and the Burts entered into a contract to supply the demand, and turned out about 10,000 of these domestic machines. This additional industry did not interfere with their other machine operations, or cripple their capacity for other work. When the demand for the Julien Churn was supplied, the shops were employed almost exclusively, up to 1876, in the shingle machine business. At that date they added facilities and machin- ery for the manufacture of the McDermott Riding and Walking Cultivator, which line of business is still continued. The shops, as now managed, can turn out 3.000 of these cultivators per year, a little less than ten per day of ten hours, or nearly one cultivator per hour.
J Mapper SCALES MOUND
THE LIBRARY CF TE
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
Although so largely engaged in the manufacture of cultivators, there has been no falling off in the manufacture of shingle machines, but, on the con- trary, there has been a steadily increasing demand for them, which demand has been promptly met by the addition of new machinery and enlarged capacity from time to time. These machines are made of different sizes and capacity, the Evarts Patent Rotary, Twelve Block Machine, being the largest and fastest, and is acknowledged to be the best large shingle machine in the world. It has two circular saws located on opposite sides of the machine, and a circular car- riage way to deliver the blocks to the saws without interruption. Its capacity in ordinary cvpress and pine timber, is about 150,000 shingles per day of ten hours, or 75,000 to each saw ; 7,500 per hour, or 125 per minute, ortwo and 1-12 shingles per second. With such capacity, it is no wonder that there is a demand for these machines in all parts of the civilized globe-in Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden,Norway, New Zealand, South America, and, in fact, wherever else shingle timber grows and is used. It can be operated by one man. .
Smaller machines are also made that will turn out from 25,000 to 30,000 per day. In addition, machines are made for bunching shingles that command admiration for simplicity and labor-saving facilities.
The manufacture of these machines is a specialty, but they do not include all the work done at the Burt shops, but they have become so universally popular, and have received such high awards of praise, at home and abroad, that, in com- pliment to the county in which the shops in which they are made have been built up-a county, the history of which is being written-that a somewhat ex- tended notice seemed deserved. Add to this the fact that, at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, they received a Medal Award, Diploma and Special Mention, and the people of Jo Daviess County have special cause to be proud that such machines are the result of the enterprise and handiwork of their fellow-citizens.
In the Centennial Report of Awards, the following entry appears of record:
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 7, 1877.
The undersigned having examined the product herein described (to-wit: SHINGLE MACHINES), respectfully recommend the same to the United States Centennial Commis- sion for Award for the following reasons, viz: GREAT SIMPLICITY OF DESIGN, SOLIDITY OF CONSTRUCTION, GREAT POWER OF PRODUCTION, and GREAT ORIGINALITY.
F. REIFER, Judge.
Approval of Group of Judges :- John Anderson, Geo. H. Blelock, John A. Anderson, Augt. Gobert, fils, F. Perrier, W. F. Durfee, C. A. Augustrom. FRANCIS A. WALKER,
A true copy of the Record,
Chief of Bureau of Award.
Given by authority of Centennial Commission. [SEAL.]
A. T. GOSHORN, Director General.
J. L. CAMPBELL, Secretary.
J. R. HAWLEY, Director General.
In February, 1877, these works also commenced the manufacture of the Frentress Barbed Fence Wire, and during that year turned out 115 tons there- of. This year (1878), they will make 300 tons. They have ten machines for making this wire, all of which were made at their own works, and are of supe- rior quality. Fence wire makers say these machines are far superior to any thing of the kind yet introduced in any part of the country. The employment of these ten machines will give them a capacity of three tons per dav, or 339 tons per year, of one hundred and thirteen uninterrupted working days.
The Burt Machine Works cover one entire block and are conveniently arranged in all their various departments. The machinery employed is all of the latest and most improved patterns, and selected with a view to capacity, adaptability and durability. The company is composed of C. S. and S. Burt, and R. E. Odell-all industrious, practical men, and thoroughly devoted to the
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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
interests of their business, and to the welfare and prosperity of the county and city of their home. These works now employ thirty men regularly, whose earn- ings go to the support of the grocers, merchants and other dealers of Dunleith. In 1876 the number of employes was not so large as during 1877, but large enough to involve , a labor account of $6,000. The labor account of 1877 shows an outlay of $10,000-a very handsome outlay, but which will be increased to about one-half more during 1878.
Nail Mill .- Nail works were commenced in 1873 or 1874, by L. & J. C. Holloway, of Lancaster, Wisconsin. This mill was supplied with six nail machines, two sets of rolls, and all the appliances peculiar to the business of nail making. The mill had a capacity of 100 kegs per day, but the enterprise was not continued many months until operations were suspended and the mill closed up. The mill and its machinery are now owned by G. T. Walker, of Lancaster, Wisconsin.
Cultivator Works .- E. Children's cultivator works were commenced in 1867. He manufactures his own patent, and turns out both riding and walking machines, making about 300 per year. His machinery is now driven by steam power.
Novelty Grain Separator Works-These works are located in the Argyle building. The manufacture of these machines was commenced by Messrs. Redd & Sanford, in 1876. This is a machine that commends itself to all practical millers, and can be best described in the manufacturers' own words : " The machine consists of two suction fans, oat and cockle extractor. The grain enters the first suction spout in a thin sheet, through a peculiar feed box, where it is met by a strong upward current of air, which removes the dust, light screenings, chaff, etc. The wheat then passes upon a series of zinc screens that effectually remove all oats, straws, sticks, weeds, and any thing larger than a grain of wheat. The wheat next passes upon the large cockle screen, which takes out all cockle, small seeds, and sand. After the wheat leaves the cockle extractor, it enters, in a thin sheet, another suction spout, where it passes through a strong upward current of air, that removes all unsound grains of wheat, light oats, smut balls and every thing lighter than a grain of wheat. The suction blasts are regulated by a valve in the top of the machine. Prominent among the new features of this machine is the cockle extractor, which consists, first, of a large screen, with a peculiar arrangement for keeping it clean, which takes out all cockle and also some small grains of wheat. The cockle and small wheat are gathered on a smaller perforated sheet iron screen, with a stationary cover, the wheat and cockle passing under the cover, which holds the wheat down flat and prevents it from turning up and passing through the holes, but forces the cockle through, the wheat passing over the end and entering the suction spout with the wheat from the first screen. This makes it the best separator ever invented. It makes no dust or dirt and can be placed in any part of the mill. The arrangement of the fans and suction spouts is such that it gives the strongest and best blast for separating grain, with the least power, of any other machine. It occupies less room than any other separator and does better work than any two others. In fact, it is two machines combined-a separator and a cockle extractor.
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