USA > Illinois > Will County > The History of Will County, Illinois : containing a history of the county a directory of its real estate owners; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; general and local statistics.history of Illinois history of the Northwest > Part 35
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As already stated, Charles Reed is regarded as the first permanent settler in the original town of Joliet, or "Juliet." David Maggard, however, settled in what is at present the city of Joliet, some three years before Reed. But at the time Maggard built his house, which was nearly opposite the Rolling Mill, there was no city of Joliet, and it was years after the birth of the city before it extended its limits to include Maggard's original cabin. Charles Reed, the pioneer of Joliet, finally went to Winnebago County, where he died a few years ago. Charles Clement, who is considered the oldest living resident of the city, settled permanently in the Spring of 1834. He commenced merchandising after he had been here some time, a business he continued for many years. In 1839, he with others started the first newspaper in Joliet, which is more partic- ularly referred to in the history of the city press. In late years, he has retired
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
from active business life, and is enjoying his well-earned possessions. Hon. Goerge H. Woodruff, perhaps the next "oldest inhabitant," also came to Joliet in. 1834. He is still an active business man of the West Side, and entertains the warmest feelings for the "country beyond the river," and it may be, some prejudice for that side of the city. His able pen has furnished some valuable history to the county, in his lectures of "Forty Years Ago" and the " Patriot- ism of Will County," a book every soldier of the late war should have. His last literary effort, and perhaps one of his best, is the writing of the General County History of this work. Otis Hardy settled here in 1836. His father died when he was but 16 years old, leaving the care of the family to him, a duty he faithfully performed. He began business in Joliet as a carpenter, but finally drifted into the lumber business, which he followed for twenty years. Mr. Hardy has been a member of the M. E. Church since 22 years of age, a member of the Quarterly Conference since 1837. and President of the Will County Bible Society for forty years. He is a man of large benevolence and exalted charity, and built at his own expense the Richards Street Methodist Church and parsonage at a cost of over $5,000, besides liberal contributions to - the other. Methodist churches of the city. He had little when he came to Joliet except a strong arm and willing hand, and here he has accumulated his wealth. George Woodruff, one of the successful merchants and bankers of the city, came here in 1836. He first commenced in the grocery and commission business, which he continued a number of years. In 1852, he built a grain elevator and engaged in the grain business until 1864, in which year the First National Bank was organized, with him as President-a business he is still engaged in. Edmund Wilcox is another of the old settlers of 1836. He was for a time engaged in merchandising in partnership with Charles Clement. In 1858, sold out and became one of the originators of the Joliet Gaslight Com- pany, was its first President, and superintended the erection of the works of the company. He is at present one of the Justices of the Peace of the city and township. In 1852, he was on the Legislative Committee for laying off the city into wards, and also member of a committee to confer with Eastern capital- ists as to the expediency of building a railroad, the final result of which was the building by the Michigan Southern, the Rock Island Railroad, one of the best appointed roads in the State of Illinois. Another of the business men of the city still surviving, is R. Doolittle. He came in 1837, and was elected Justice of the Peace a few years later, an office he held for twelve years; was also Assignee in Bankruptcy during the existence of the old bankrupt act of the United States years ago. In 1852, he resumed business as a merchant, which he had formerly been engaged in, and the firm of Doolittle & Stone erected the three-story brick building on the south side of Jefferson street, which was the second building west of Ottawa street. He sold to his partner in 1864, and engaged in railroad contracting, and, in 1871, was again elected Justice of the Peace, which office he now holds. Uri Osgood came from New
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
York in 1836, and was a leading lawyer and prominent business man and banker of Joliet. It is said that he once bought all the land on Jefferson street from Ottawa street to the river, for two black horses and $50 in money. It would take a national bank or two to buy the same district now. H. N. Marsh settled here in 1835, and engaged in cabinet making. In 1848, he purchased the True Democrat, which, on the organization of the Republican party, was merged into the Joliet Republican. He continued in the newspa- per business until the completion of the Rock Island Railroad, in 1852, when he took charge of the offices here, a position he has ever since held, with the exception of three years from 1864 to 1867, when he served as Postmaster of Joliet. Joel A. Matteson is another of the early business men, to whom Joliet, as well as the State of Illinois, owes much of its prosperity. He set- tled in the city of Joliet in 1836, and the woolen mill was one of the monu- ments of his enterprise. His public life commenced as a Justice of the Peace, and ended as Governor of the State, and was characterized throughout by wise and able judgment in promoting the interests of the country. His business life, however, did not remain unspotted to the end. His connection with the canal scrip is familiar to most of our readers, and without a wish to revive painful and disagreeable reflections, we leave it to them to draw their own conclusions. The Cagwins, prominent business men of Joliet, came here when the city was not. H. A. Cagwin came in 1834, Abijah in 1835; Francis L. and O. D. came in 1838. Abijah Cagwin first settled one and a half miles from the city, where he remained until 1840, when, having been elected "Judge of Probate " he moved into Joliet, where he has lived ever since. He and Francis L. engaged in merchandising, produce, lumber, etc., which they continued some time. The latter is now in the banking business, and the former is dealing in grain. H. A. Cagwin clerked for Cox, the first merchant of the place, when he first came to Joliet ; lives now in California, and O. D. Cagwin lives in Lockport. He made a trip to California during the gold excitement in 1849-50, and was gone three years. Rodney House is another of the carly settlers of the city. He came from New York in 1835, and settled on the east side of the river, and · was the first carriage maker on this side, while J. Beaumont was the first on the west side, and had come to the new city a short time before House came. Francis Nicholson came from New York, and settled on the west side in 1836. He has been living in the house he now occupies, for thirty-four years. Dr. A. W. Bowen first settled outside of the city, but moved into it in a short time, and was among the first merchants, as well as the first Postmaster and the first practicing physician. We have, so far as possible to obtain them, given the names of early settlers. If any who are entitled to rank as old settlers have been overlooked, it is unintentional, and is owing to their names having escaped the memory of the few still living.
The first merchant in Joliet was a man named Cox, who commenced the mercantile business, in a very limited way, about 1833-4. It was for this man
------
Henry. D. Hyinbotham (DECEASED) JOLIET
THE LIBRARY OF THE
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
Cox, that H. A. Cagwin clerked when he first came to the place. Further than this, we know little of this first store and first merchant. The next store was opened by M. H. Demmond, who used one room of his residence for a store- house, as soon as it was finished. In the mean time, while waiting for the com- pletion of his house, his goods were stored in Chicago, in the first warehouse ever built in that city. In January, 1835, Demmond bought McKee's claim, except his mill property, and laid it off into town, lots-McKee having pre- viously divided it into acre lots only-the plat being recorded in June, 1830. Soon after laying out the West Side, Clement built a saw-mill, and under the firm name of Clement & Clark, a brisk lumber trade was at once inaugurated. This year, Demmond set the example, since so extensively followed in Joliet, by putting up the first stone building. It is the block of business houses on the West Side, opposite the National Hotel, and upon its completion was appropri- ately celebrated by a ball, at which all the young people for miles around con- gregated. By way of embellishment, we draw on "Forty Years Ago," for the following anecdote, which occurred while Demmond & Curry kept a store in this stone block. Dr. Adams had a fancy hog, one of the long-nosed kind, that are said to stick the snout through a fence and pick off the third row of corn. In those days, all stock was permitted to run at large in the street. This hog of Adams' seemed to know in a moments when Demmond & Curry's cellar door was open, and no matter in what part of the town he might be wan- dering, he instantly appeared upon the scene and slipped in. As they did a large barter business, they of course took in a great deal of butter, and thus many a jar was rendered unfit for anything but a Chicago restaurant. by the hog, and the merchants swore vengeance against him. One rainy night, as they were closing up, they heard him enter the cellar, and, instead of driving him out, closed the door and held him prisoner. They caught him, and after sat- urating him thoroughly with spirits of turpentine, took him to the door, touched the candle to him and bade him go. He went. With an unearthly yell he tore through the streets, lightening up the darkness with the lurid blaze, and terribly frightening the canal people, men and women, who verily believed it was the " divil himself," and they called upon all the saints in the calendar for protection. On, on he went, putting straight for the river, like the swine of old, plunged in the stream and silence and darkness reigned. With this little digression, parenthetically, we will resume our subject. The next stone build- ing was erected by John L. and Richard L. Wilson, in 1836, on the East Side, just south of the City Hall, in which they opened a store. In 1837, the stone block known as "Merchant's Row," was built. These, with a number of wooden buildings that had been put up in the mean time, were filled with stores of different kinds, and Joliet was becoming a place of considerable business. The first blacksmith of whom we have any account, was W. R. Atwell, who opened a shop on the West Side, in 1835. The first tinsmith was William Blair, who settled on the West Side, in 1836, and opened a tin-shop, where he
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
remained several years, then removed to Chicago. Charles Sayre was the first tailor, and as elsewhere noted, settled in Joliet in 1834. J. Beaumont, Rod- ney House and Elias Hyde were the first carriage makers. Beaumont was on the West Side, while the other two settled on the East Side. Hugh Henderson is credited as the first lawyer in the city of Joliet. William A. Boardman and E. C. Fellows came soon after Henderson; Boardman and Henderson were partners in the law for a time. Fellows was from New York, and settled first in Channahon Township, where he married a daughter of Judge Peck. Benjamin Richardson, who settled in Plainfield Township, in 1834, and in 1836 came to Joliet, was a chairmaker, and followed the business for some time in this city. Many of these men, noted as beginning business here more than forty years ago, are still at their post, and it is a theme of re- mark that Joliet has a larger number of aged business men than any other city in Northern Illinois. To this fact is attributable, perhaps, the energy and enter- prise and solid business qualities which are so strongly characteristic of the " Stone City," for men usually, as they grow older, lose some of the wild spec- ulative recklessness of youth, and weigh all new projects well before taking hold, and younger men will make a fortune-and sometimes lose one -- while they look at a proposition and debate the practicability of investing in it.
The grain trade, which is one of the most important branches of business in Joliet, was begun in an early day. John M. Wilson and Charles Clement were the first grain merchants of the place, and used an old barn on Block 16 for storage purposes. Their net profits for the first year, and the only one, in which they handled grain, are said to have amounted to the immense sum of nine dollars. They made a corner in the market and retired from the business at the end of the first year. But without attempting to follow the grain trade through all its stages, from Wilson & Clement's " corner " to the vast propor- tions it has since assumed, we will endeavor to give something of its present status. There are now five able firms engaged in grain, viz .: Carpenter & Marsh, A. Cagwin & Co., E. R. Knowlton, H. C. Teed, Wheeler & Co. and J. E. Bush. Carpenter & Marsh are the heaviest dealers. As an illustration, we give their shipments for one week, taken from a newspaper publication of 1874 :
Monday.
48 car loads.
Tuesday.
44 66
Wednesday 21
Thursday
33
Friday.
30
Saturday
42
Total for the week
218
They handle annually not far short of three and a half million bushels of grain, and all of which is shipped direct to Eastern markets. 'Their elevator capacity is about thirty thousand bushels, and twelve to fifteen men are employed in loading and unloading grain. Last year, this firm alone handled 3,750,000
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
bushels of grain, most of which was corn and oats, but a little wheat and barley. A. Cagwin & Co. handle annually about five hundred thousand bushels of corn and oats, most of which is shipped direct to the East. The elevator used by this firm was built by Carpenter & Marsh, and will store from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand bushels of grain. It is owned by M. O. Cagwin. H. C. Teed, Wheeler & Co. handle about five hundred thou- sand bushels annually, and have storage room for about thirty thousand bushels in Michigan Central Elevator. They also handle pressed hay, mill feed and wool, which, together with grain, they ship East, viz .: to Canada, New England and Pennsylvania. E. R. Knowlton handles about three hundred thousand bushels of corn and oats, which are shipped East. He has two elevators, one of which was built by Cagwin, in an early stage of the grain . business, and will store about eighteen thousand bushels of shelled corn, and the other about twelve thousand bushels of oats. His cribbing capacity is about five thousand bushels of ear-corn. J. E. Bush, whose warehouse and elevator stand near the Jefferson street bridge, handles about six hundred thousand bushels of corn and oats annually, and ships both to the East and to Chicago-to the latter place by canal. He has storage room for about forty thousand bushels. As will be seen, most of the grain handled in Joliet is shipped direct to Eastern markets. This is done by the " Cut-off" division of the Michigan Central Railroad, a very important road for the business of Joliet, as it avoids the delay and expense of shipping by Chicago. Much of the grain and stock going East over the Chicago & Rock Island and Chicago & Alton Railroads are here transferred to the " Cut-off" Railroad, and do not go to Chicago at all, which, added to that bought at this point, makes Joliet quite a center of trade.
Next to the grain interest, and perhaps even surpassing it in importance and as a source of actual wealth to the city, is stone quarrying. Joliet stone is known throughout the State, and to a considerable extent in many other States. From the inexhaustible supply of the finest building and flag stone, the large number of stone buildings and most excellent sidewalks, the city has justly received the pseudonym of the "Stone City." The neighborhood of Joliet is as prolific of stone as some neighboring sections of coal. Indeed, from a ramble among the quarries, we should judge the supply to be sufficient almost to build a " Chinese Wall" around the entire State. So far, it has been impossible to form any accurate idea of the extent or quantity of stone in this vicinity, as the number of quarries now in successful operation required no labor to open them other than the scraping off of the trash from the surface, and no cause exists for going to any great depth for superior qualities of the "raw material." As pertinent to the subject, we quote from the Geological Survey of Illinois : " Only from twelve to fifteen feet of beds furnishing 'dimension stone ' are now quarried. as the bottom of this brings the quarryman down to the water-level, and the supply has thus far been so abundant as to make deeper explorations
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
unnecessary. The stone itself is a very compact, fine-grained, clink- ing, magnesian limestone, but thin seams of greenish clay run irregularly through the whole mass, which, upon long exposure in situations alternately wet and dry, must ultimately cause the most solid layers to split up. The separation in the quarry into 'ledges,' often twenty-four, thirty and forty inches in thickness, simply results from the presence of somewhat thicker partings of this same greenish, shaly clay. These beds were formerly described as com- posed of light buff stone, while the deeper portions of the quarries now furnish 'blue stone.' The difference results from the difference in amount of oxidation of the small portion of iron disseminated through the whole mass, the change having resulted from atmospheric influence. The same change must ultimately take place in all the ' blue stone ' which is brought to the surface."
Who was first to engage in quarrying, as a regular business, we have been unable to ascertain, but are of the opinion that as the city grew and developed, enterprising individuals gradually and mechanically, as it were, drifted into it to supply the increasing demand for building stone. M. H. Demmond, who is mentioned on another page as having built the first stone house in 1835, must have been the first quarryman, though it does not appear that he. extended the business beyond his own immediate wants. From that insignificant beginning the stone business has continued to increase until it has reached vast proportions, and the quarries in and around Joliet, in ordinary times, give employment to more than five hundred men. One of the large quarries here in operation is that of W. A. Steel, who employs a large number of men, and ships immense quantities of stone to almost every part of the country, and commands a large trade throughout this State, having shipped some sixty thousand car loads to the Government works at Rock Island alone. The Custom Houses at Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison, Wisconsin, and the Capitol of Michigan were built principally from his quarries. But our space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Steel's well-known quarries. Bruce & Co. have one of the oldest quarries in the vicinity and employ a large number of men. From having been long in the business, they command a large trade and ship extensively to other sections of the country. The Joliet Stone Company's quarries are among the largest and best in operation. The Company was organized in 1877, under the State law, with G. H. Munroe, President ; G. M. Campbell, Secretary and Treasu- rer, and D. C. Hays, Superintendent. So recently organized, they have not yet fully developed their quarries, but furnish a superior quality of limestone, and the bottom layers of the quarries are cement stone. They employ from twenty-five to one hundred men, and have the most complete steam machinery for sawing and rubbing stone in use. The Company has recently purchased and opened a quarry in Alabama, which they are now working extensively. The Werners are largely engaged in the stone business. Charles, William and Adam Werner operate separate quarries, of which Charles, perhaps, does the largest business. William Davidson & Bro. opened their quarries in 1845, and
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
ship largely to different parts of the country. Their quarries are on the Rock Island Railroad and the canal, thus affording them excellent facilities for ship- ping. Bannon and Kronmeyer both own and operate large quarries, the former on the west side of the river and the latter on the canal, just south of the prison, and have a large trade both at home and abroad. There are other quarries around the city, perhaps, some of which we believe are doing but little business, while others are standing wholly idle. In this brief glance at the stone interests of Joliet, it will be seen that the business is one of immense volume and value. Concluding our brief sketch, we would note the fact that the United States Government has subjected this stone to new and critical tests, as compared with the stone from all the important quarries in the coun- try, and both the War and Treasury Departments for years past have recog- nized its superiority and drawn on Joliet for immense quantities of it for the erection of public buildings throughout the country.
The history of the press dates back almost to the beginning of Joliet. The first newspaper, a copy of which we have before us, was issued on the 20th day of April, 1839, and was called the Juliet Courier. It presents a very attractive appearance, for a country village of forty years ago, and we extract from its well-filled columns, the following dedicatory poem, by M. N. H., whom many of our readers will doubtless recognize :
FOR THE JULIET COURIER.
Go, Courier, forth ! and, heedless of all The thorny paths thou may'st be called to tread,
Press onward ! breaking from the Lethean thrall That dark discouragements may round thee spread.
Press onward ! and thy banner undismayed Spread to the breeze that sweeps the sunny West-
Our Country's banner! while beneath its shade,
The birds of Jove amid her stars at rest, Protection all may find, and be with freedom blest ! Press onward! and with fearless heart proclaim Rest to the weary 'neath the tyrant's yoke ; Freedom to all who groan beneath a chain; Joy to the heart by stern oppression broke ! Then fearless of repulse may'st thou invoke The sons of freedom to cheer on thy way ;
And feudal serfs from their long dream awoke, Led by thy high report, shall hither stray, And find beneath our happier skies a more auspicious day.
Yet shall the watchfires on our hills decay. And factions wrangle round our sacred flame ;
The stars of Union from their orbit stray,
Like the " lost pleiad," ne'er to shine again In our proud standard over earth and main ; Cease not to raise thy voice until its tone
Shall rouse the Patriot to shake off the chain That fatal luxury has round him thrown ; For his whole country's good to toil, and that alone.
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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.
And as thy weekly message thou dost bring,
The cause of virtue ne'er forget or slight ; Nor fear to strip from vice its covering,
Before their gaze who look to thee for light ! Nor in thine intercourse with others slight
Their faith which may to thee like error seem ;
But thine untiring zeal for truth unite With charity for those who strangely deem
· Their cause the cause of truth, and THINE an idle dream.
Go forth ! and ever round thine onward course May flowers of intellect unnumbered spring ;
And Genius taught by thee her own resource, To thee her joyous tribute gladly bring ; And Poesy her bright imagining, Entwine into a garland for thy brow ;
While lofty honor bears with tireless wing Above all dalliance with the mean and low ; And public favor, all thou dost deserve, bestow.
The paper was started by thirteen of the enterprising citizens of Joliet, or Juliet, of whom were the Allen brothers, Charles Clement, R. Doolittle, Judge Henderson and E: Wilcox. The press had been shipped to Ottawa, but not. being wanted there, was offered on favorable terms, and was bought by Joliet. After considerable search they found a man of the name of O. H. Balch who had edited a paper in Michigan, and was also a practical printer, and him they secured as editor and publisher. It was a true-blue Democratic paper, and in his salutatory the editor promulgated this sensible doctrine : *
* " He will only state in general terms that he intends to publish a newspaper in which the principles of Democracy shall be enforced and vindicated, and in which the National Constitution shall be held up to view as the foundation of our Repub- lican institutions and the bond of our Union and as the safeguard of our civil liberties." In its columns we find this item of news, which was probably quite an achievement in its day, but when compared to present improvements, is dwarfed into insignificance : " Rapid Traveling .- It is stated in the Wilming- ton (N. C.) Journal, that the mail is now carried from New York to Charleston (by way of the Wilmington & Raleigh Railroad) in eighty-four hours." It ex- perienced the usual struggle for a foot-hold in the newspaper field, and, after many changes, passed into the hands of D. L. Gregg, a brilliant young lawyer, and afterward a member of the Legislature, then Secretary of State, and after- ward United States Consul to the Sandwich Islands. In 1843 it was pur- chased by Hon. Wm. E. Little, who changed its name to that of Joliet Signal, which name it still retains. He, in a year or two, sold it to Hon. S. W. Randall, and he sold it to A. O. Stillman, who in May, 1846, sold it to C. & C. Zarley, sons of Reason Zarley, the first settler of Joliet Township. Calvin Zarley, before his death, disposed of his interest to P. Shuts, the other Zarley still retaining his interest. The firm is Zarley & Co., and their paper has ever remained Democratic, carrying out the principles heralded to the world on the day of its birth.
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