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 48

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : Wm. Le Baron, jr. & co.
Number of Pages: 980

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 48

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HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY.

Creek, was discovered a wagon-track running by a blind road from one of the Van Horne's, and from where the wagon track terminated a wheelbarrow track to the mill-pond. The wheelbarrow was found in the mill and upon it some hair. The pond was dragged and the body of a man considerably decayed was found. Old Mclaughlin was told of the discovery, and he said that if it was his son certain teeth would be missing. The body was examined and found to correspond with the old man's description. The excitement was intense and public opinion divided. The Coroner held an inquest, which resulted about as satisfactorily as such things generally do. Old McLaughlin and his wife swore positively that they believed the body was that of their son, while many others believed it too tall, aged and too much decayed. But notwithstanding these discrepancies, the Coroner's jury found it to be the body of young Mclaughlin, and while they did not bring a charge against any one, old Mclaughlin swore out a warrant and had Van Horne arrested. And in the excitement and divis- ion of sentiment, many were ready to hang Van Horne without judge or jury. It became an object to those who sided with Van Horne, and who did not believe the body "sat on " by the Coroner to be that of young Mclaughlin, to find out whose it was. At length, some one thought of the grave of the old man who had been robbed, and a delegation was sent to examine, when it was found to have been recently disturbed, and when the coffin was opened, it was tenant- less. In the mean time, a surveillance had been put upon the post office, and a letter having come for old Mclaughlin, mailed somewhere in Pennsylvania, it was opened by consent of the Postmaster and found to be from the missing son. The tide of public opinion had changed when the discovery was made at the grave, and now those who had been so eager to hang Van Horne were still more eager to hang McLaughlin and his wife. The development of the matter shows that old Mclaughlin, his wife and son had conspired to ruin Van Horne, and that they had dug up the body of the old man, taken it to the mill-pond-a distance of two miles-examined it closely enough to detect the missing teeth, or extracted them on purpose to make it correspond with the son, and then depos- ited it in the water. They had taken the wagon of Van Horne and drawn it. to the creek and back to turn suspicion on him. The old man got wind of the turn affairs had taken upon the opening of the letter, and made his escape before the infuriated people could get hold of him, or perhaps the historian would have the melancholy duty to perform of chronicling a sure-enough murder story, instead of one with the murder left out.

Samuel Haven was also a New Yorker, and settled in this township in 1835 or 1836. He had four sons, viz., Dwight, Carlos, Rush and Alvin. Rush Haven is a physician, and lives in Chicago; Carlos died here, and was buried in the little cemetery of New Lenox village; and Dwight and Alvin are still living in the township. Joseph S. Reynolds was from Ohio, and settled in the town in 1833. He had lived some time at Ottawa before coming to this settle- ment. He died some twenty-five years ago, but has sons still living in the

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township, who are honored and respected citizens. Jason Rugg and David Hartshorn came from Vermont in 1836, and settled near where the village of New Lenox now stands. They had made arrangements for removing here in 1832, but rumors of the Indian war going on at that time deterred them, and their coming was postponed until the date given above. They have both been dead several years, and both sleep in the pretty little village cemetery. James C. Kercheval was a son of Lewis Kercheval, mentioned in an earlier part of this chapter. Though but a boy, he took part in the Black Hawk war until the settlers were forced to flee to the older settlements for safety. He died in 1873, and his widow is still living in the town.

The Francises came from Ohio, but were originally from England. John Francis, an Englishman, removed from England to Ireland in the year 1690, settled in the county of Cavan, and married Jane McGregory, a Scotch lady, whose father fled from Scotland to Ireland in the time of the persecution waged by the Catholics against the Protestants. They had two sons, William and John. William died when a young man. John married Mary Sharp, by whom he had five sons-William, John, Richard, Edward and James ; and three daughters- Mary, Jane and Margaret. John married Margaret Cranston, of Scotland, by whom he had two sons. James married Esther Ingram. William married Jane Love, who was of Scotch ancestry; and Jane married Alexander Meharry. William Francis, who married Miss Jane Love, had four sons-John L., Thomas, Abraham and Isaac; and three daughters-Jane, Margaret and Mary. Will- iam Francis, who married Jane Love, emigrated from Ireland in the year 1815, and settled in Brown County, Ohio, where his family all remained until the year 1831, at which time Abraham married Mary Ann J. Davison, of Adams County, Ohio, and moved with his brothers Thomas and Isaac to the site where the widow of Abraham Francis now lives with her son, A. Allen Francis, in the town of New Lenox, Will Co., Ill. The next Spring, Mary, with her hus- band, Aaron Wear, came and settled on the section just west of Abraham Francis. Thomas removed to Bates County, Mo., where he died two years afterward. Aaron Wear removed to Morgan County, Mo., in the year 1857, where he died a few years later. Abraham Francis had five sons and six daugh- ters, of whom four sons, A. Allen, John, Charles and George L., and four daughters, Margaret (wife of N. P. Cooper), Mary A. J. (wife of John S. Blackstone) Lydia E. (wife of A. S. Haven), and Addie A. (wife of Jesse Meharry), are still living, and all but two of them live in their native town, New Lenox. Abraham died on the place where his widow now lives, an active, intelligent lady, apparently but little beyond the prime of life. She was mar- ried when but 16 years of age, and came at once to Illinois, and with her hus- . band made a home where she still lives, awaiting the summons to join the companion of her youth, up beyond the blue sky. She relates the following of Father Beggs, the pioneer Methodist preacher : He came to their cabin one day, soon after they had settled in the neighborhood, and asked where her

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father was. She told him he was at home in Ohio. He then inquired what she was doing away out here in the wilderness, so far away from her father's ; when, with naivete, she answered that she "had come here with her husband ;" at which revelation he seemed a little surprised, from her childlike appearance. John Francis, another of her sons, is living within a short distance of her ; while a married daughter, Mrs. Cooper, also lives in the immediate neighbor- hood. The four sons reside on one street, and their farms join each other, making a continuous stretch of two and a half miles. Henry Watkins, father of the pioneer school-teacher, came from New York and settled in New Lenox Township in the Fall of 1831, where he lived until his death, about fifteen years ago. Of others who settled on Hickory Creek at a very early period, we may mention Michael and Jared Runyon, Isaac and Samuel Pence, Joseph, Alfred and James Johnson, and Henry Higginbotham. There were, perhaps, others who are entitled to mention as early settlers, but their names have escaped the few who survive them. Higginbotham bought out Col. Sayre in 1834, and the saw-mill firm before alluded to became Wheeler & Higginbotham. The Johnsons settled near the line of Yankee Settlement, on Spring Creek. The Pences and Runyons were among the very early settlers. The Pences were in the settlement before the Sac war, but the exact date of their coming is not remembered. Edward Poor, an old soldier of the war of 1812 and of the Black Hawk war, is living on Maple street with his son, Robert Poor. He first settled in Homer Township, where he receives further notice. .

As stated in the beginning of this chapter, settlements were made on Hickory Creek as early as 1829, which were among the first made in Will County, perhaps Plainfield, or Walker's Grove having a little the precedence. As a natural consequence of this early settlement, births, deaths and marriages occurred here at an early period. The death of Mr. Brown, mentioned as one of the first settlers on the Creek, who died in the Fall of 1830, was the first death in this township, and is supposed to be the first person who died in Will County. The first marriage was Miss Anne Pence and Thomas Ellis. The marriage took place on the 4th of July, 1834, and was a part of the programme of the "day we celebrate," and the happy event was solemnized in Joliet, by B. F. Barker, a Justice of the Peace. This wedding is graphically described in "Forty Years Ago," to which our readers are re- ferred for particulars of the bridal costume and "fixins." It is also supposed to be the first wedding in the county. The first white child born in New Lenox Township, and perhaps in the county, was Elizabeth Norman, born in January, 1832, and Margaret Louisa Cooper, nee Francis, was the next child born in the township, and was born the 3d of January, 1834. The first practicing physi- cian in the Hickory Creek Settlement was Dr. Bowen, now of Wilmington, and the first preacher was Father Beggs, or Rev. Mr. Prentiss, who located in Joliet in an early day. We are informed by A. Allen Francis, who derived the information from the man himself that Joseph Shomaker was the first settler

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in what now comprises Will County, probably arriving in the Spring of 1828, in what is now known as Reed's Grove, in the township of Jackson. We have it from Mr. Francis, also, that the first marriage in the county was that of Jedediah Woolley, Jr., of Troy Township, to Betsy Watkins, daughter of Henry Watkins, of New Lenox Township, January, 1832; and that Father Walker preached the first sermon, in 1832, in the fort or blockhouse, and Stephen Beggs, the second.

The first mill was built by Joseph Norman, on Hickory Creek, about 1833 or 1834. Col. Sayre's mill was built previously, but was just over in Joliet Township. The first bridge was built across Hickory Creek, near John Gougar's. It was built of logs, and was a rough affair. The township is well supplied with excellent bridges at the present day-having two iron bridges of improved patent, one across Hickory Creek, at New Lenox village, and the other across the north branch, while there are a number of excellent wooden bridges of substantial build. The first road laid out was the State road from Chicago to Blooming- ton, but was a little off the direct route, and was never used. The first traveled road was from Joliet east to State line, and passed by Gougar's. The first post office was kept at Mr. Gougar's, though C. C. Van Horne was the Postmaster. This was not only the first post office and Postmaster in New Lenox Township but in Will County. The mail was carried on horseback from Danville to Chi- cago. Sometime after its establishment in 1832, the office was removed to Joliet, and Dr. Bowen became Postmaster. The first Justice of the Peace was C. C. Van Horne. The present Justices are: T. G. Haines and Dwight Haven. Township Clerk, Sinclair Hill; Township Treasurer, T. G. Haines, and John Francis, Supervisor. Since township organization, the following gentlemen have represented the town in the Board of Supervisors: J. Van Dusen, 1850; A. McDonald, 1851; B. F. Allen, 1852 ; G. McDonald, 1853 ; J. C. Kerche- val, 1854-55; D. Haven, 1856-57; J. C. Kercheval, 1858; D. Haven, 1859-60; Allen Francis, 1861-63; T. Doig, 1864 ; D. Haven, 1865; T. Doig, 1866-67; D. Haven, 1868; T. Doig, 1869; C. Snoad, 1870-71; John Francis, 1872; P. Cavenagh, 1873; John Francis, 1874, and is still Supervisor.

The first school was taught in New Lenox Township in the Winter of 1832-33, by C. C. Van Horne. In the Summer of 1832, a schoolhouse had been built in the timber on Hickory Creek, which was a small log structure, and in this building Van Horne taught the following Winter. John Watkins, the pioneer teacher, taught in this house afterward. He, it is said, taught the first school in Chicago. The school facilities of New Lenox have increased since that day, as, in 1872, the reports showed 8 schoolhouses; 366 pupils enrolled; 14 teachers; amount of special tax $2,896.88; amount paid teachers, $2,210.13; total expenditures for the year, $3,342.57; balance in treasury, $1,338.96. The first church edifice built in New Lenox Township was the Methodist Episcopal Church, erected in 1850, and was called Bethel Methodist Church. Before this church was built, services were held in

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the schoolhouses, and before schoolhouses, in the people's cabins. The Mormons were the first who preached in the settlement, and used to promulgate their heavenly revelations as early as 1831, and next after them came the Methodists, who are mentioned as the first "real, sure-enough " preachers. The camp grounds of the Methodist Church, belonging to the Rock River Conference, located a little west of the village of New Lenox, in a beautiful grove, are very beautiful, and admirably adapted to the purposes for which they are used.

The name New Lenox was taken from Lenox, N. Y. The first Supervisor under township organization was J. Van Dusen, and came from Lenox, N. Y., and when asked to name his township by the County Commissioners, gave to it the name of his native town. Previous to that it was known as Van Horne's Point, from a point of timber near the center of the town, and at a still earlier date it went by the name of Hickory Creek Settlement. Maple street is a road · running through the north part of the town from east to west, and was so named in consequence of the first settlers planting a number of maple-trees along the line of the road. On the political issues of the day, New Lenox is pretty evenly divided. Some years ago it was largely Republican, but with National Greenbackers and Democrats, the Republican majority has been whittled down to the little end of nothing.

As this is one of the early settled portions.of Will County, its history could hardly be considered complete without some special reference to the Indians and the Sac war of 1832, so often mentioned in these pages. Although nearly a half-century has passed since those rather "ticklish " times, and most of the participants are gone where "wars and rumors of wars " come not to disturb their peace and tranquillity, there are a few left who remember well the great excitement of that period. And the very Indians themselves are almost forgot- ten by the masses, or only remembered through the reports from the distant West of their robbing, plundering and murdering. But on the 18th day of May, 1832, Hickory Creek Settlement, for the small number of inhab- itants it contained, perhaps was about as excited a community as one will gen- erally meet with in half a life-time. On that day news was brought to the set- tlement of the death and destruction being dealt out by Black Hawk and his dusky warriors. A committee of a dozen men who had the best horses were ·appointed to go to Plainfield and reconnoiter, and bring back news as to the truth of the reports. Thomas and Abraham Francis were on the committee, and the news brought back was not calculated to allay the existing excitement in the least. On approaching Plainfield, they discovered Indians firing on the fort or block- house, and the committee stood not on their retirement, but fell back precipi- tately, to put it into the mildest form possible. On their return, they reported to the settlers that the Indians were coming and killing everything before them. A council of war was called at " Uncle Billy " Gougar's, and it was determined to seek safety in flight, and on the 18th of May they commenced the line of march. The majority retreated toward the Wabash settlements, while some few

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went to Chicago. The bustle and excitement of getting ready to start, and the mo- mentary expectation of hearing the terrific yells of the savages, gave rise to some ludicrous scenes, as serious as was the cause of alarm. Mr. Pence's girls came to Mr. Gougar and asked him to yoke up their oxen for them. " Yes, in a minute," said he; but before he could get ready to do so, the brave girls had yoked the cattle themselves, hitched them to the wagon, and were gone on the way toward safety. (Young ladies of Will County, how many of you could perform such a feat to-day, if an emergency should arise to demand it?) The first day the cavalcade arrived within four miles of the Kankakee River, where they encamped for the night, intending to start at daylight and drive to the river before breakfast. But just after starting the next morning, a man named Lionbarger came up hatless, riding bare-back, and did " a tale unfold " of Indi- ans in pursuit and of murder and carnage, that completely dispelled the appe- tites of the already frightened fugitives, and they did not stop for breakfast until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and " thirty miles away " from their encampment of the previous night. As the women and children would see the trees along the way that had been burned and blackened, they would shriek, INDIANS ! and thus the march or retreat was continued through to a place of safety. It was dis- covered afterward that Lionbarger had mistaken fence-stakes for Indians, and hence his story of the pursuit and of his own extreme fright. He rode, it is- said, eighty miles without stopping, bare-headed and without a saddle, a feat that has never been excelled, as we are aware of, even by Jim Robinson the great bare-back circus-rider. But the storm of war soon passed ; the dark and lurid clouds rolled away toward the west, and the sun came forth in all his- glory-the olive-branch of peace waved over the land, and the fugitive settlers returned to their claims in July of the same year which witnessed their precip- itate retreat, never more to be disturbed in their peaceful pursuits by the red men of the forest, who, like Dickens' little Jo before the " peeler," have moved on before the "superior race," the white men, and are still moving on toward the " golden sunset," where erelong they will hear the roar of the last wave that will settle over them forever.

THE VILLAGE OF NEW LENOX.

This pretty little village is situated on the banks of Hickory Creek, and on the Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, thirty-three miles from Chicago, and about six miles fromn Joliet. It is surrounded by a beautiful grove of timber, and grand old forest-trees shade it in Summer and protect it against the storms. of Winter. The village of New Lenox was laid out in 1858 by George Gay- lord, of Lockport, and surveyed by A. J. Mathewson, County Surveyor. The village is known on the original plat by the name of Tracy, and was given in honor of the General Superintendent of the railroad at the time of the laying- out of the village. But with a modesty rarely met with in the present day, he shrank from such notoriety, and at his urgent request, the name was changed

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to New Lenox, to correspond with the name of the township. A man of the name of Robinson built the first residence in the village, and Van Horne put up the next one. Both of these were built before the village was laid out. David Letz built the next house, which is now a part of the hotel kept by Doxtader. The first storehouse was erected by Paschal Woodward, who owned both the building and the stock, though it was managed by a man named Haines. The first post office was established in 1858, and John B. Saulsbury was appointed the first Postmaster. The mail-bags are now handled by Ward Knickerbocker. An excellent grain warehouse was built by Samuel Woodward, and is now owned by the railroad company and rented by George Hilton, who handles grain pretty extensively. The first schoolhouse was built long before the village was laid out, and stood just across the street from Ward Knicker- bocker's store. The present handsome school edifice was built in 1869, is a two-story frame and cost about $3,000. Prof. Frank Searles is principal of the school, and employs an assistant during the Winter season. The following is a summary of the business carried on in the village : Three stores-W. Knick- erbocker, Tunis Lynk and George Hilton ; three blacksmith-shops, one grain warehouse, two wagon-shops, one hotel, one tin-shop, one physician-Dr. F. W. Searles. J. B. Saulsbury carries on a butter-factory, which is quite an estab- lishment, and adds materially to the importance and business of the village. He does not make cheese, but devotes his entire attention to the manufacture of butter, and works up from four to five thousand pounds of milk daily, which is made up on shares for his patrons.

The village has two pretty little churches, viz .: The Methodist and Grace Episcopal. The Methodist Church was built in the village in 1859, and is the same, as mentioned in another page, as being built in the township in 1850, and called Bethel Church. It was taken down in 1859 and moved to the village and new material added to it and the present edifice erected, at a cost of about $1,000. It has about sixty members, under the pastorate of Rev. George P. Hoover. Allen Francis is Superintendent of the Sunday school, which is well attended. Grace Episcopal Church was opened to service in September, 1870. It is a frame building, painted stone-color, and cost $2,000, with a membership of about fifty, under the pastoral charge of Rev. Mr. Turner. Quite a flourishing Sunday school is maintained under the superintendence of Sinclair Hill. Upon a sunny slope of the village, where the south winds sigh through the forest-trees that shade it, is the beautiful little village grave-yard, where sleep the loved ones, who have gone to their rest. It is a pretty spot and shows many traces of loving hands in the planting of shrubs and flowers above the sleeping dead.

The village of Spencer is situated on the cut-off division of the Michigan Central Railroad, about nine miles from Joliet, and is two miles from New Lenox village. It was surveyed by A. J. Mathewson, County Surveyor, for Frank Goodspeed and Albert Mudge, who owned the land on which it is loca-

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ted. It was laid out in 1856, about the time the railroad was built through this section. The first storehouse erected in the place was the one occupied by Russell Kennedy in 1856, the same year the village was laid out. The post office was established in 1857, and James Holmes was appointed Postmaster, an office he still holds. The first grain elevator was built in 1857 by the railroad company, and, on its completion, was dedicated by a rousing ball, in which the boys and girls of the surrounding country participated to their entire satisfac- tion. In 1875, H. S. Carpenter built another large elevator, and this, like- wise, was similarly dedicated. Indeed, this seems to be the usual mode of opening elevators in this section of the country. It is now operated by W. M. Dudley, who, also, has the other elevator rented, in order to keep other parties out of the business at this point. He handles annually something like 800 car- loads of grain-principally corn and oats. The general business of Spencer is two stores, by N. P. Holmes and Knapp Brothers ; one saloon, a post office, a blacksmith-shop, a shoe-shop, two grain elevators and one grain dealer. There is neither a church or schoolhouse within the limits of the village. A consid- able amount of business is transacted in this little and apparently unimportant village-far more than a stranger would imagine at first sight; but it is in the midst of a rich and fertile region, and immense quantities of grain and stock are annually shipped from this little station.

FRANKFORT TOWNSHIP.

" Frankfort-on-the-Main," otherwise Frankfort Township, comprises one of the stair-steps of Will County, forming a "jog" in the line, and is bounded on the north and east by Cook County, on the south by Greengarden Township, on the west by New Lenox, and had a population, in 1870, of about one thou- sand nine hundred and twenty inhabitants. The town is mostly fine, rolling prairie, with the exception of a few sections bordering Hickory Creek, the only water-course of any consequence. Frankfort Township is termed the summit of this portion of the State, and is said to be the highest point between Chicago and the Mississippi River. It is described as Town 35 north, Range 12 east of the Third Principal Meridian, and is as fine an agricultural region as Will County can boast.

Forty-eight years have come and gone since white men began to settle in the territory now embraced in Frankfort Township. William Rice is supposed to have been the first white man whose footsteps marked the virgin prairie in this portion of Will County. He made a kind of prospecting tour through here in 1828, but did not make a permanent settlement until in the Summer of 1831. During the Spring and Summer of that year, John McGovney, Will- iam Moore, William Rice and a man named Osborne settled near where the village of Mokena now stands. Not long, however, were they allowed to remain in peace and tranquillity. The notes of war were wafted to them upon

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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 48

Author: Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Chicago : Wm. Le Baron, jr. & co. Number of Pages: 980

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : Wm. Le Baron, jr. & co.
Number of Pages: 980