USA > Illinois > Stephenson County > The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : containing biographical sketches war record statistics portraits of early settlers history of the Northwest, history of Illinois, &c. > Part 22
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County Judge .- George Purinton, 1849 ; John Coates, 1853; W. M. Buck- ley, 1857; Talcott Ormsbee, 1861; Charles B. Wright, 1863-65; Andrew Hinds 1869; Henry C. Hyde, 1873-77.
County Clerk .- W. Preston, 1849; J. J. Rogers, 1853-died in office, and David H. Sunderland, elected to the vacancy at a special election, holden June 4, 1855. David H. Sunderland 1857-61; George Thompson, 1865; George Thompson, 1869; I. F. Kleckner, 1873-77.
County Justices of the Peace .- L. Gibler and G. W. Andrews, 1850.
County Treasurer .- Jonathan Reitzell, 1849; W. M. Buckley, 1853 ; Andrew Hinds, 1855; W. S. Gray, 1857-61; William Young, 1863-65 ; Robert T. Cooper, 1869-71; Oliver P. McCool, 1873-75; Charles F. Goodhue, 1877-removed in October, 1878, and Wallace W. Hutchison succeeded to the vacancy at a special election held in November of the same year; re-elected at the general election for county officers, holden Nov. 4, 1879.
County Surveyor .- Marcus Carter, 1849; B. Dornblazer, 1853-57; C. T. Dunham, 1859; William O. Saxton, to fill vacancy, 1860; W. Peters, 1861-63 ; Christopher T. Dunham, 1865-69; Samuel J. Dodds, 1871; F. E. Josel, 1875; Hiram Shons, 1879.
School Commissioners .- J. B. Smith, 1849; John Barfoot, 1852; F. W. S. Brawley, 1853-55; Henry Freeman, 1857; H. C. Burchard, 1859; A. A. Crary, 1861-63.
The title to the office changed to County Superintendent of Schools-A. A. Crary, 1865; Isaac F. Kleckner, 1869; Johnson Potter, 1873; Adam A. Krape, 1877.
Senators .- The Senatorial District was originally composed of the counties of Stephenson, Carroll and Jo Daviess, with one Senator and three Representa- tives-one from each county. This continued until the adoption of the consti- tution in 1870. The Senators were Hugh Wallace, 1850; John H. Adams; 1854, re-elected, 1858-62 and 1866; James M. Hunter and Dr. Little, 1870, Henry Green, 1872; R. H. McClellan, 1876.
Representatives .- B. B. Howard, 1850; C. B. Denio, 1852; T. J. Turner, 1854; J. A. Davis, 1856; J. A. Davis, 1858; John F. Ankeney, 1860; Ho- ratio C. Burchard, 1862-64; Joseph M. Bailey. 1866-68; Thomas J. Tur-
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ner and William Massenberg, 1870; E. L. Cronkrite and J. S. Taggart, 1872-74; E. L. Cronkrite, 1876; J. I. Neff and Andrew Hinds, 1878.
Sheriffs .- Peter D. Fisher, 1850; George Reitzell, 1852; Isaac Kleckner, 1854; J. W. Shaffer, 1856: C. F. Taggart, 1858; J. W. Shaffer, 1860; W. W. Robey. 1862; Jeremiah J. Piersol, 1864; W. W. Robey, 1866; John R. Hayes, 1868 ; John R. Hayes, 1870 ; J. J. Piersol, 1872-74; Jesse R. Leigh, 1876-78.
Coroner .- Isaac Bechtol, 1850; George H. Hartsough, 1852; Abel Smith, 1854; Samuel McAfee, 1856; B. P. Belknap, 1857, to fill vacancy ; John Washburn, 1858; Levi A. Mease, 1862; W. W. Robey, 1864; F. A. Darling, 1866; Caspar Schultz, 1868; Christian M. Hillebrand, 1869; Jeremiah J. Dean, 1870-78.
Circuit Judges .- The Circuit Court first held its sessions on the 26th day of August, 1839, the Hon. Daniel Stone presiding. In the winter of 1840, an act was passed by the General Assembly, abolishing the Circuit Court system, and providing that the duties incident thereto should be discharged by the Judges of the Supreme Court. This was continued until the fall of 1848. when the Circuit Court system was revived, and has since obtained with the following Justices: Daniel Stone, 1839 ; Thomas C. Brown, 1841; Benja- min R. Sheldon, 1849 to March, 1870; William Brown, the present incumbent. In 1877, Stephenson County was included in the Thirteenth Circuit, the same consisting of the counties of Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Carroll, Ogle, Whiteside and Lee. For this circuit three Judges were elected-J. M. Bailey, William Brown and John V. Eustace. Bailey was appointed Justice of the Appellate Court, and the duties of his circuit are discharged by Justices Brown and Eustace, though Judge Bailey assists when not engaged on the Appellate bench.
Clerks Circuit Court .- John A. Clark, from 1839 to 1852; Joseph B. Smith, to 1856; Luther W. Guiteau, to 1860; John W. Shaffer, to Novem- ber 9, 1863, resigned and Edward P. Hodges appointed to the vacancy ; sub- sequently elected to the office for four years from 1864 ; William Polk, to 1872; Aaron W. Hall, 1876 ; D. S. Brewster, present incumbent.
State's Attorney .- Sheldon L. Hall, 1839 ; Thomas J. Turner, 1846; H. B. Stillman, 1847-50; Orrin S. Miller, 1851-52 ; William Brown, to 1860 ; S. D. Atkins, to 1864; F. C. Ingalls, to 1868; D. W. Jackson, to 1872 ; J. S. Cochran, the pesent incumbent.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
With the close of the Black Hawk war, the Indians as a rule disappeared from their hunting grounds, and returned no more to plague the inventors of a new line of life in future Stephenson County. The few who remained were dispirited, subdued and awed into defenseless apathy by the whites, whom they rarely interfered with or in any way, save through minor thefts and annoyances proceeding therefrom, recognized as the existing power. The relics of their barbaric life, however, were noticed by the settlers at intervals, and recalled the days when Winneshiek occupied the country without restraint. Near the City of Freeport, where are to be seen their corn-fields, council houses, cabins and cemeter- ies wherein they labored, consulted, lived. died and were buried-not committed to mother earth, there to await the dawning of the resurrection morn, but laid to rest in the air, if so anomalous a condition of affairs can be conceived. Four strong poles were planted in the ground, on which a platform was constructed, and the body of the dead with his bow and arrows, together with various trinkets
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placed thereon and left to the storms, the sunshine, and the future. Some of these antique " burial grounds " were to be observed by the early settlers in the West, when the skeleton of deceased was all that remained to recall the liv- ing, who once rejoiced in health and strength, whose tribe doubtless mourned the deep damnation of his takings-off, as its representatives shrived him for his pursuit of game and foemen in the happy hunting-grounds. But these senti- nels of death, against whom the advance of progressing civilization long since prevailed, disappeared with their discovery, and no monument remains to mark the spot where once they were endured.
Years have elapsed since the first settlers visited Stephenson County, whence they went the way of all flesh, and the music of their rejoicings became fainter and fainter until it was stilled. In the hurry and bustle of life, in the burdens which mankind has borne, made heavier with each succeeding cycle, in the changes which have followed each other so rapidly, and the active advance- ment in the perfected places of life,-the historic associations connected with these pioneers, have lost some of their freshness, but none of the value to which they are justly entitled. Once their corn-fields decked the river bottoms and fringed the hillsides and ravines with a wealth of foliage, bespeeking a plen- teous harvest against the hour of need. In the russet days of the present, when the tanned reaper in brief moments of ease vouchsafed him, the fields lying brown and bare, contemplates his possessions as they dot the landscape, and ยท are lost in the horizon, he scarcely reflects upon the times long since gone out in age, and consigned to the tomb of oblivion, where others who preceded him toiled as he toiled in fields of grain ripe for the harvest, rejoiced as he rejoiced, unmindful of the coming of age and infirmities, or of another generation by whom his acres should be appropriated and himself not unfrequently left to wander an Ishmaelite in almost undiscovered lands. But many of them have gone, and with them many a glorious throng of happy dreams. Yet if there is a pious mansion for the blest, if the soul is not extinguished with the body, may they not return in spring, or with the harvest in autumn, or with winter and his aged locks, and view the regions they once knew so familiarly, or sit and muse upon the changes that have been wrought and have survived the injuries of time, since they went hence. They kept their patient vigil in their day, faced the storm of penury and wrestled with the strong hand of adversity, but the seed sown amid trials, and sorrows and weepings, has yielded sheaves of wealth to the present days which are bound to the melodies of harvest songs and stored with prayers of thanksgiving. Those days were dark, indeed, with no silver lining to the clouds that impended over the future. But none were disheartened. Their hearts were high with hope. They believed the horizon would dawn into the morning of which prophets spoke and minstrels sang, of which poets dreamed and painters sketched. They believed the time would be when the fir-tree would come up instead of the thorn, the myrtle-tree instead of the bricr, when the mountains and hills should break forth into singing, and the trees of the wood should clap their hands.
And these confidences have been more than realized. The thorn has given place to the fir-tree, and the myrtle-tree has usurped the place of the briar. The voices of the husbandmen are heard throughout the land, and their songs of thanksgiving are echoed from each hillside. Peace, plenty, felicity and con- tentment are to be witnessed on every side; the heritages of those who came into this unbroken wilderness fifty years ago, buoyant, elastic, laughing at tem- porary misfortune, shedding a genial warmth on those they met while passing
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through life, and, departing, leaving behind not only a kindly and gentle mem- ory, but an example for those who came after.
The collation of facts concerning events occurring at a date within the memory of inhabitants by no means comparatively ancient, would appear to the uninitiated in the character of a task presenting but limited difficulties. By some, the labor has been regarded as one of the necessary incidents of life to be endured; some have regarded it with indifference, while others have paused not in their fierce career to concede a superficial consideration of the premises.
From these indispositions, coupled with the failure among those possessed of the incidents, to record the same for future reference and adaptation, the record of early settlements contains but scant materials from which to weave an acceptable history. Patient industry and careful research, however, have not been without results, but have aided the laborers employed in that behalf. From all that can be learned in this connection, it appears that a man named Kirker left St. Louis some time during the year 1826, and, removing to the vicinity of Galena, established himself as a lead miner in the employ of Col. Gratiot, founder of Gratiot's Grove, Wis. Here he remained about a year, doubtless encountering many of the vicissitudes, enduring many of the trials and participating in some of the triumphs peculiar to lead mining and the life thereof, when he dissolved partnership with the business, bade good-bye to Col Gratiot and his associates, and, venturing into Stephenson County, built a cabin in Burr Oak Grove, and set himself up as an Indian trader. The success which attended his commercial undertaking is not of record, but the fact that he retired from active operations and left his habitation to the posses- sion of savages within a year after his advent into its vicinity, would argue the conclusion that his ambition was not properly recognized, which conclusion is- further strengthened by the fact that he was heard of no more after his year's sojourn at Burr Oak. Whither he went or what he did are beyond the ken of the living, the suggestion of rumor or the range of probabilities, to determine. He was never seen again in the vicinity nor elsewhere, according to the chron- icles.
For a year following, future Stephenson County was remitted to the possession of the Indians, and whomsoever may have been sufficiently adventurous to enter its territorial limits, without leaving any trail behind him to guide posterity or enterprise in their pursuits of his name and local habita- tion.
During 1827, when, according to all accounts, the summer's sun had vanished and autumn winds were whistling through the leafless trees, a native of New York by the name of Oliver W. Kellogg, crossed the river at Dixon, and, pursuing the uneven tenor of an emigrant's way in those days, worried gradually through the eastern portion of the present county, and tarried not until he reached the improvements made by Kirker, his predecessor, near Burr Oak Grove, in the vicinity of which he pitched his camp, and before the coming of spring erected a house. The domicile was in many respects a pretentious edifice for the days, and enjoyed an experience as varied as it has been at times, exciting. Within its protecting and hospitable walls John Dement, of Dixon, and his troops, took shelter from the Indians, and, in the spring of 1835, it became the home of James Timms, one of the first permanent settlers in the county, he purchasing the domain from a man named Green, of Galena, who derived a title from Lafayette, a French adventurer who succeeded Kellogg in its possession, but fled when the Black Hawk war rendered residence in Burr Oak Grove an exceedingly hazardous undertaking. The old house remained
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comparatively intact until 1862, when it was torn down and the frame appro- priated to other uses. A new house was built on the site, but no more like the Kellogg improvement, it is said, than Hecuba resembled Hamlet. Nothing remains of these pioneer premises but an orchard, old and fruitless, that was planted by Kellogg, the first in Stephenson County. It has served its purpose, and, decrepit with age, is permitted to survive the rush of matter for the good it has been the means of accomplishing in the flush of its youth and strength.
During the summer of 1833, the " barren " opposite this house was the scene of a tragedy as fatal as it was singular, by which two lives were sacrificed, two families shrouded in woe, and the soil of Stephenson County first drenched with the blood of murdered innocence.
It seems that two young men, en route to the lead mines, had halted at the point indicated, and encamped for the night. Their establishment consisted of a wagon and two yoke of cattle, together with the equipments usual to the completely furnished " prairie schooner," and of a quality superior to that ordinarily taken into the lead mines at the period mentioned. As was afterward ascertained, they were the sons of Virginia planters, who became impressed with the glowing accounts they had heard of the wealth of the lead country, and, provided with every accessory that could contribute to their comfort or prosperity, started in pursuit of fortune. After a laborious trip, the adven- turous twain reached Kellogg's cabin, as the shades of night were obscuring the landscape, and having, as they thought, secured their cattle and eaten their supper, lay down to dreams. In the morning, they awoke to discover that their oxen had strayed off, and while one of them prepared breakfast the other started out in search of the missing stock. After a delay of several hours the oxen were recovered, and driven to camp. Upon their arrival, the young man who had been left in charge, was found to have made no progress in the duties assigned him, and a dispute arose between himself and his companion as to the cause. This discussion was carried on, it is said, with much acrimony, and finally ended in blows, during which one of the contestants seized a pin, connected with the tongue of the wagon, or an ox-yoke, and, striking a blow upon the head of his antagonist, crushed the skull, and inflicted a wound that caused almost instant death. Paralyzed with horror at the lengths to which, in an unguarded moment, he had permitted his anger to carry him, he was powerless for the time to attempt any concealment of his crime, and sought a relief from the woe, to which he had committed his peace of mind, by flight. But wanderings through the forest afforded no release from the pangs of con- science, and he returned to the scene of the tragedy, where his victim had fallen by the wayside, cold and stiff, grim and ghastly, a horrible spectacle to those inured to scenes of strife and bloodshed, and doubly so to him, with whom he had embarked so short a time before, with high hopes and pleasurable antici- pations on the voyage of life that terminated in death and eternal desolation. With the implements included in the invoice of tools, he digged a grave, and, laying his companion therein, the survivor hooked up the oxen and pursued his journey west, arriving at Apple River within a week after the sad occurrence, where he related the facts, as are herein stated, to the amazed settlers, who placed no restraint upon his liberty, however, when he disappeared from view, and was never seen or heard of thereafter. Many years subsequent, the skeleton of a human being was found in the woods of Jo Daviess County, of whose identity no one could be found to testify, and the impression obtained that it was the remains of him who had murdered his comrade in the " barren " oppo- site the Kellogg cabin.
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FREEPORT.
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There were others who came into Stephenson County about this time besides Kellogg, including William Baker, one of the Prestons, and, possibly, a few more; but their stay was only temporary, after which they returned whence they came, reserving a permanent settlement until some years subsequent. In 1832 (during the fall), William Waddams, with his two sons, made his advent into Stephenson County, and, canvassing the country round about, formally staked out a claim at a point in West Point Township about three miles north - west of the present town of Lena. Here, in the summer of 1833, he erected a small log house, on the present site of Jo Daviess Waddams' house, and locat- ing his family therein, carried off the honors to which the first permanent set- tler in Stephenson County can legally and equitably lay claim. This was the second house, it is alleged in the county, but, unlike its predecessor, " Kellogg's Mansion," it now stands on the Waddams place, opposite where it first stood, and is occupied by Mrs. Eunice Place, daughter of its architect and builder. The "Cabin " is of the most limited dimensions, presenting none of the attract- ive features for which farmhouses are to-day noticeable, yet it is as comfortable and cozy as when first raised in the wilderness, and bears its age without any of the marks of weakness or "discouragement" peculiar to manufactures of that "beatific" period. The logs remain as sound as when first placed in posi- tion, and the window frames, fashioned by Mr. Waddams with his jack-knife, are untouched by decay ; but the puncheon floor has yielded place to material more adapted to that purpose, and the huge fire-place which formerly occupied one end of the apartment has been vacated, its uses being appropriated by more modern inventions. If the walls could but speak, what a tale of the pleasures and pains experienced in that old-fashioned, one-roomed house, they would unfold. What mournful cadences they would sigh of the troubled visions that have swept over the breast of breathing sorrow for those who went out from its portals, chilled in the embrace of death, to sleep beneath the daisies which car- essed their graves as the breezes tossed them into rippling eddies. Or how joyfully they would detail the marriage fete, the social, quilting and what-not of pleasure that has passed within its confines. The old home is still treasured as a relic of heroic days, when men possessed less of the superficial and more of those characteristics which raise mortals to the skies, than is apparent to the casual observer of to-day. It possesses a charm for those who have survived the death of Mr. Waddams which can never be dissipated, and promises to be preserved for years to come, when Stephenson County shall have attained a pro- minence and influence, in comparison with which that enjoyed to-day is but nominal.
The close of the Black Hawk war, and dispersion of the soldiers who aided in subduing that fierce and seemingly unconquerable foe of the white race, called the attention of the country more generally to the natural advantages to be found in Northern Illinois, and particularly in the country bordering upon the Pecatonica and its tributaries. The volunteers regarded the homes of Winneshiek and his tribe found along the streams and creeks, and in the bar- rens and wilderness of Stephenson County, as veritable gardens of Babylon, and many of them, acting upon this conclusion, came in as settlers among the first who arrived, where they entered claims and have since remained. The majority, having reached the Biblical limits of human life, have departed in peace ; but a few still remain residents of Stephenson County, where they have witnessed the fullest fruition of their predictions regarding the country and amassed a comfortable competence. Among these are John Waddams, Robert
C
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Brightendall, Jacob Burbridge, George Trotter and, perhaps, one or two more.
About the same time, as will be remembered, the Galena mines were the objective points for soldiers of fortune from every State, and those at Dubuque, the restraints to emigration thither having been removed, but imperfectly developing. As a consequent, thousands of prospectors, adventurers, specu- lators and the hoi polloi journeyed in those directions, intent on putting money in their individual purses, by mining, luck or agencies they hoped would favor their efforts without entailing too great a draft on their physical or financial resources. They were composed of men from Ohio, Missouri and elsewhere, with a sprinkling of Illinoisans. The route to Galena in those days was by St. Louis or by some other point on the Mississippi; another route was to cross the river at Dixon, strike what is known as "Sucker Trail," entering Stephenson County in the southwestern part of Loran Township, and Jo Daviess County, from Kent Township, thence to Galena and Dubuque. This route was patronized quite freely by emigrants, on their trips to those points, to whom the fertility of the soil, salubrity of the climate and other advantages patent to all who passed through Stephenson County, became as familiar as they are to-day to the manor born. Many who visited the lead mines returned without testing the value of their claims - many returned after encountering failure, and many returned only when they had attained the object for which they went in pursuit. The inducements held out by the agricultural resources of the county, persuaded representatives of every class cited to enter claims hereabouts and in time become farmers. Those who did so, have, as a rule, succeeded, and laid up treasures upon earth, at least. Added to the volunteers and miners were the natives and residents of Eastern States, who, impatient at the limited extent of their hereditaments, and ambi- tious to identify themselves with enterprise in an enlarged field of action, where legitimate business, if conducted with the industry and integrity indispensable to a living at home, would be attended with better results, sought to test their judgment in the West. Illinois was then an almost undiscovered bourne to many of them, and Stephenson County was an absolute wilderness. But the knowledge of these facts, instead of appalling, rather influenced their coming hither, and to-day, the history of the county is largely a record of what has been accomplished by those who came from the East, notably from Pennsyl- vania, Ohio and New York.
Such, then, were the influences employed to attract emigration, and such was the character of those who responded. As a matter of course, there were numberless worthless characters who came in with the "flood, " but the same causes which admonished them to leave their native heaths exerted a similar influence here and urged them to seek elsewhere for what they were restrained from appropriating on the banks of the Pecatonica. This country, then await- ing the claims of the industrious and enterprising, but holding out the promise of prosperity to all, was scarcely a comfortable locality for the outlaw or one of felonious propensities. If they came "born again " they were accepted as valuable additions. But if the new dispensations duplicated their acts com- mitted elsewhere, they were no longer tolerated, but banished. The conse- quence was, and is, that crime has never been an important factor of the civili- zation established in Stephenson County. Indeed, the record of the criminal court in this county is comparatively free from the various crimes entailing capital punishment or prolonged imprisonment. This is due entirely to the sturdy character and unflinching integrity of the early settlers, whose virtues
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