The past and present of Kane County, Illinois : containing a history of the county a directory war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion statistics history of the Northwest etc., etc, Part 19

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.); Merrill, Arthur; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Le Baron (Wm. jr.) and Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : W. Le Baron, jr.
Number of Pages: 831


USA > Illinois > Kane County > The past and present of Kane County, Illinois : containing a history of the county a directory war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion statistics history of the Northwest etc., etc > Part 19


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9815


6144


5060


3124


2931


Boone


I2942


II678


7624


1705


Brown


I2205


9938


7198


4183


Bureau


32415


26426


8841


3067


Calhoun


6562


5144


323I


I741


1090


Carroll


16705


II733


4586


IO23


Cass


11580


II325


7253


2981


Champaign


32737


14629


2649


1475


Christian


20363


10492


3203


1878


Clark


18719


14987


9532


7453


3940


93I


Clay


15875


9336


4289


3228


755


Clinton


16285


1094I


5139


3718


2330


Coles


25235


I4203


9335


9616


Cook


349966


144954


43385


IO20I


Crawford


13889


II55I


7135


4422


3117


2999


Cumberland


I2223


83II


3718


De Kalb


23265


I9086


7540


1697


De Witt


I4768


10820


5002


3247


Douglas


13484


7140


Du Page


16685


I470I


9290


3535


Edgar


21450


16925


10692


8225


407I


Edwards


7565


5454


3524


3070


1649


3444


Effingham


15653


7816


3799


1675


Fayette


19638


III89


8075


6328


2704


Ford


9103


1979


Franklin


12652


9393


568 I


3682


4083


1763


Fulton.


38291


33338


22508


13142


1841


Gallatin


III34


8055


5448


10760


7405


3155


Greene


20277


16093


I2429


I195I


7674


Grundy


14938


10379


3023


Hamilton


13014


9915


6362


3945


2616


Hancock


35935


29061


14652


9946


483


Hardin


5113


3759


2887


1378


Henderson


12582


9501


4612


Henry


35506


20660


3807


I260


4I


Iroquois


25782


I2325


4149


1695


Jackson


19634


9589


5862


3566


1828


1542


Jasper


II234


8364


3220


1472


Jefferson


I7864


I 2965


8109


5762


2555


691


Jersey


15054


I2051


7354


4535


To Daviess


27820


27325


18604


6180


2III


Johnson


II248


9342


4114


3626


1596


843


Kane


39091


30062


16703


6501


24352


15412


Kendall


12399


13074


7730


7060


274


Lake


21014


18257


14226


2634


La Salle


60792


48332


17815


9348


Lawrence


I2533


9214


6121


7092


3668


Lee


2717I


17651


5.292


2035


Livingston


31471


I1637


I553


759


Logan


23053


14272


5128


2333


1


1


J


Kankakee.


Knox


39522


28663


13279


*23


217


MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.


POPULATION OF ILLINOIS-CONCLUDED.


AGGREGATE.


COUNTIES.


1870.


1860.


1850.


1840.


1830.


1820.


Macon


2648 1


13738


3988


3039


II22


Macoupin


32726


24602


I2355


7926


1990


Madison


4413I


31251


2044I


I4433


6221


I3550


Marion


20622


I2739


6720


4742


2125


Marshall


16950


I3437


5180


1849


Mason


16184


10931


5921


Massac


9581


6213


4092


McDonough


26509


20069


7616


5308


(6)


Mc Henry


23762


22089


I4978


2578


McLean


53988


28772


10163


6565


Menard


II735


9584


6349


4431


Mercer


18769


15042


5246


2352


26


Monroe.


12982


I2832


7679


4481


2000


1516


Montgomery


25314


13979


6277


4490


2953


Morgan


28463


22112


16064


19547


12714


Moultrie


10385


6385


3234


Ogle


27492


22888


10020


3479


Peoria


47540


36601


17547


6153


(c)


Perry


I3723


9552


5278


3222


1215


Piatt


10953


6127


1606


Pike


30768


27249


18819


II728


2396


Pope


II437


6742


3975


4094


3316


2610


Pulaski


8752


3943


2265


Putnam


62So


5587


3924


2131


11310


Randolph


20859


17205


11079


7944


4429


3492


Richland


12803


97II


4012


Rock Island


29783


21005


6937


2610


Saline


12714


933I


5588


Sangamon


46352


32274


19228


14716


12960


Schuyler


17419


14684


I0573


6972


b2959


Scott


10530


9069


7914


6215


Shelby


25476


14613


7807


6659


2972


Stark


1075I


9004


3710


1573


*5


St. Clair


51068


37694


20180


13631


7078


5248.


Stephenson


30608


25112


II666


2800


Tazewell


27903


21470


I2052


722I


4716


Union


16518


III8I


7615


5524


3239


2362


Vermilion


30388


19800


II492


9303


5836


Wabash


8841


7313


4690


4240


2710


Warren


23174


18336


8176


6739


308


Wayne


19758


I2223


6825


5133


2553


III4


White


16846


I2403


8925


7919


6091


4828


Whitesides


27503


18737


5361


2514


Will


43013


29321


16703


10167


Williamson


I7329


I2205


7216


4457


Winnebago


2930I


24491


11773


4609


Woodford


18956


I3282


4415


*49


Total.


2539891


1711951


851470


476183


I57445


55162


Washington


17599


13731


6953


4810


1675


1517


¥21


1


PRODUCTIONS OF AGRICULTURE, STATE OF ILLINOIS, BY COUNTIES .- 1870.


Improved Land.


Woodl'nd


Other un -! improved


Spring Wheat.


Winter Wheat.


Rye.


Indian Corn.


Oats.


COUNTIES.


Number.


Number.


|Number. 1,491.331|


Bushels.


Bushels.


Bushels.


Bushels.


Bushels.


Total ..


19.329.952| 5,061.578|


10.133.207|19 995. 198 2.456,578 129.921.395 42.780.851


Adams.


287.926


112,576


19,3701


16,191|


947.616


20,989


1,452,905|


759,074


Alexander


13.836


17,761


42,658


30


244,220


21,627


Bond ..


145,045


42,613


1,915


200


368.625


6,240


1,064,052


461,097


Boone .


137,307


29,886


2,658


241,042


599


35,871


466,985


579,127


Brown ..


57,062


35,491


25.608


13,276


117.502


4,742


337,769


70,852


Bureau.


398,611


41.866


15.803


465,236


724


43,811


3,030.404


987,426


Calhoun


37,684


63.443


2,754


75


221,298


186


234,041


26,234


Carroll


186,864


29.793


33,302 6,604


12,165


127,054


2.772


1,146,980


168,784


Champaign


419,368


16,789


58,502


102,577


123,091


45.752


3.924,720


721,375


Christian


241,472


19,803


19.173


18,360


504,041


10.722


1,883,336


383,821


Clark


118,594


102,201


5,420


1,894


85,737


3,221


1,019,994


269.945


Clinton


150,177


48,868


8,722


500


610,888


1,619


813.257


446.324


Coles ...


208,337


45,214


3,274


2,651


154,485


8,825


2,133.111


315.954


Cook.


348,824


19,635


17,337


144,296


4,904


20,171


570,427 581,964


136,255


Cumberland


75,342


40,334


5,604


550


84,697


14,798


403,075


171,880


DeKalb


334,502


17,722


6.551


398,059


190


21,018


1,023,849


1,087,074


De Witt ..


168,539!


29,548


17.633


106,493


11,695


11 540


1,311,635


216,756


Douglas


147,633


7,316


7,683


65,461


9,017


1,680,225


225,074


DuPage.


164,874


3.851


106,096


693.


7.532


331,981


860,809


Edgar ..


265,458


66,803


14,282


13,283


247,360


37,508


2,107,615


290,679


Edwards.


58,912


57,585


830


77


195,716


19.759


620,247


386.073


Fayette.


187,196


16.786


42,571


1,008


11,577


565,67]


154,589


Franklin.


80,749


2,996 3,994


86,710


365


111,324


5.195


653,209


222,426


Fulton


228,132


123,823


4,076


193,669


223,930


131,711


1,508,763


261,390


Gallatin.


49,572


68,750


2.565


83,093


512


509,491


27,164


Greene ..


175,408


93,242


29.653


21,700


150


4,930


295,971


269,332


Hamilton.


88,996


93.878


3,343


129


92.347


11.672


735,25%


203.464


Hancock


311,517


43,385


18.480


181,378


232,750


133,533


1,510,401


579,599


Hardin


28.117


44,771.


107


13


32,306


865


172.651


26.991


Henderson.


140,954


34,705


14,243


161,112


69,062


96,430


1,712.901


229,286


Henry


265,904


31,459


462,379


445


35,766


2,541,685


668,367


Iroquois.


322,510


63,498


57,160


10,480|


23,259


799,810


430,746


Jackson


78,548


5,991


890


329.036


524


611,951


149,931


Jasper


90,867


67,023


12,250


87.808


9,165


461,345


149,214


Jefferson


118,951


94,888


778


100.553


5,934


887,981


285,949


Jersey


94,147


51,427


1,363


282,758


555


7.185


1,286,326


874,016


Johnson.


57,820


79,141


92,191


2.468


343,29t


74,525


Kane ..


240,120


34,646


399


188,826


325


23,618


674,333


785,608


Kankakee.


312,182


10,978


103,466


480


12,935


637,39!


772,408


Kendall.


14,244


2,283


90,681


1,249


5.16: 113,547


2,708,319


787,952


207,779


21,072


24,399


168,914


221


5.87€


517,35;


699.069


533,724


2,356


271,181


2,193


48,30€


3,077,02$


1,509,642


Lawrence


87,828


3,273


264,134


1,121


656,36:


131,386


Lee ..


322,212


12,071


7,409


450,793


2,260


14,829


1,656.978


903,197


Livingston


377,505


12,462


41,788


1,339


26,16:


1,182.69ł


659,300


Logan.


321,709


17,394


408


198,056


40,963


37.232


4,221,641


490,226


205.259


18,153


9,115


55,239


196,613


29,22;


2,214,468


454,648


231.059


81,224


7,343


160


861,398


2,404


1.051,544


459,417


257.032


89,450


13,675 4,142


1,207,181 173,65%


14,517


1,034,057


389,446


Marshall.


166,057


28,260


2,976


106,129


900


36,135


1,182,903


362,604


Mason


209,453


31,739


31,013


73,261


125,628


49,182


2,648,72


272,660


Massac


25,151


33,396


30


72,316


544


133,126


22,097


McDonoughi


52,547


14,035


273,871


36,146


52.401


1,362,490


280,717


McHenry


230,566


57,998


401,790


270


29,264


1,145,00€


910,397


McLean


494.978


49,087


211,801


10,955


39.824


3.723 37!


911,127


Menard.


134,173


34.931


13.952


36,152


45,793


4,28:


1.973.88


235,091


Mercer


222.809


45,977


22,588


289,291


13,203


40.778


2,054,96%


452,889


Monroe.


83.369


666


651.767


1.425


543,718


152,251


Montgomery


47.804


8,495


59


744.891


3,296


1,527,89>


293,450


60,217


1,376


18,196


357,523


5.53.


3,198,835


198,724


144,220


24,783


13.112


17.128


196,436


6,670


1,753 141


263,992


316,883


43,643


14.913


497.038


5,580


157,504


1,787.066


141,540


170,729


48,666


2,516


92,361


31 843


99,502


969,224


93,754


220


26,382


39.762


9.245


1,029.725


130,610


Pike


233.785


128,953


9,302


130


1.057,497


25.303


1,399.188


161.419


Pulaski.


19,319


12,516


4.174


28,137


796


7.707


334,259


86.519


140.764


162.274


1.170


450


1,031,022


3.235


510.08+


414,487


Richland ..


75,079


50,618


2 025


150.268


3.401


482,594


276,575


Saline ..


72,309


70,393


809


200


83.011


568


531,51(


69.793


421.748


51,085


19,932


89,304


247,658


23,072


4,388.76%,


397.718


Schuyler.


96,195


62.477


21,294


56,221


165,724


20,841


Scott


85,331


1,610


18


266.105


930


13.462


Shelby.


310,179


9,314


15,526


452,015


23.686


2,082,578


637.812


Stark ..


138,129


12,375


2,783


2,550


1,562 621


1,008


1,423 121


476.851


Stephenson


254,857


13,701


527,394


2.118


135,362


1.615,679


960.620


Tazewell


229.126


14,846


132,417


72.410


59,027


2,062,053


505,841


Vermilion


360,251


53,078


31,122


44,806


249.558


52,476


2,818.027


436 051


Wabash.


54,063


37.558


509


186,290


5,712


72,212


Wayne


147,352


146,794


10,486


266


164,689


8,665


1,179,291 870 521


119 653


Whitesides


289,809


37.310


457,455


264


31.658


2,162,943


880 838


Will.


419,442


24.261


6.335


195,286


1,996


8,030


1.131,458|


1,868.632


Williamson


128,448


1,648


176


170,787


6.228


655,710


180.986


Winnebago.


241,373


15,237


408,606


2.468


137.985


1.237.406


863.003


Woodford


225,504


25.217


23.135


178.139


198,307.


20.426


2,154.185


744,581


Crawford ..


105,505


78,350


27,185


60


212,924


7,308


614.582


212,628


Clay.


146,922


80,612


5,225


418,073


260


25.721


1,367.965


775,100


Cass.


92.902


33.493


55,852


1.931


672.4861


2,576


836.115


404,482


White ..


92,398


869


184,321


418


1,149 878


316 726


St. Clair.


231,117


76.591


43.167 45,268 83.606


5,300


180 231


1,737


679.753


124,473


110,793


Warren.


266,187


27,294


14,583


Washington.


2,982.853


601.054 533,398


Perry


350,446


1,01€


384,446


338,760


Fiatt


94.454


87,754


70,457


2,309


315,958


67,886


44,92


22:


195 735


16,511


204 634


Rock Island.


155.214


31,239


20,755


243,541


2.279


20,003


1,459,65:


Sangamon.


44,633 24,908


124.630


30 534


Union.


75,832


68,470 5,978


13,897


550


3,685


2.127.545


475,252


Marion.


173.081


61,579


25.155


267,764


7,654


415


1,051,313


64,029


Grundy.


193,999


6,256


4,505


122.703


528


352,371


129,152


Effingham.


120,343


56,330


26,206


351,310


25,328


962,525


497,395


Ford.


141,228


93,460


63,976


558,367


519,120


71.770


JoDaviess


156.517


82,076 3


681,267


468,890


Knox.


330,829


41,566


Lake


LaSalle


48,117


72,738


120,206


Macon


261,635


53,293


40,366


92,810


276,682


668,424


Morgan Moultrie.


Ogle ..


Peoria.


334,892


Pope.


55.980


Putnam


37,271


17,184


2,016


202.201


421,361


177.592


78.167 21.823


116.949 37.238


440,975 752.771


119 359


Maconpin


Madison


12,620


22.478 87,642


45,779


10,598


164.004


577,400


15,497


1,584,225


11,897 17,243|


195,118


-


Randolph


1


S. I Manual


ELGIN.


HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.


KANE COUNTY occupies a territory of 540 square miles, extending from McHenry on the north to Kendall on the south, and bounded on the east by Cook and DuPage Counties and on the west by DeKalb. It originally com- prised thirty-six townships, eighteen of which are now embraced in DeKalb and three in Kendall, while one of the others has been divided since the township organization, leaving sixteen within its present area. It contains nineteen cities, villages and hamlets, many of the most extensive manufactories in the State, about 105 miles of railroad in successful operation, and has few equals among the counties of the entire country in the variety and extent of its resources. Its chief source of wealth, however, is its rich prairie soil, drained by the beautiful Fox River, which traverses its eastern range of townships from north to south, and by several smaller streams and tributaries, the most important of which are Big Rock, Blackberry, Mill, Ferson's, Tyler's and Kishwaukee Creeks, Something less than one-fourth of its arca is covered with woodland; and its timber, when the country was new, was of a superior quality, including black walnut, hickory and the many varieties of oak, which are still common in its groves. Its geological deposits which appear to the view are limestone. All exposures of rock are, with one slight exception, along the banks of the river. At any point along the valley, a removal of a few feet of soil discloses this rock, which, at Batavia and vicinity, appears as an excellent building stone. Flag-stone, of any required surface or thickness, may there be obtained, which is usually of a buff or reddish yellow hue. An artesian well, bored at the C., B. & Q. car shops, in Aurora, disclosed, first, 30 feet of alluvial deposit, fol- lowed successively by 108 feet belonging to the Niagara limestone group, 165 feet to the Cincinnati group, 232 feet to the Galena and Trenton deposits, and, finally, by 158 feet of the buff and reddish-yellow sandstone. But few fossils have ever been unearthed in the county, and of these few the remains of a mas- todon, found near Aurora and now preserved in Jennings Seminary, are the most important. Further notice of them will be made in the chapter upon Aurora Townsnip. Peat is extensively ranged over portions of the surface of the northern townships, especially in Rutland and Hampshire, and in many sections a


A


222


HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.


fine quality of brick-clay is obtained, from which brick very similar to the cele- brated Milwaukee brick is manufactured. Water is found in nearly every part of the county by sinking wells from ten to fifteen feet below the surface.


As will be inferred from the above statement, the general nature of the sur- face is level or but slightly rolling, there being but few hills worthy of the name


in the entire county. In summer, the traveler, standing upon the slight eleva- tions along the river bank, may behold for miles the rolling table lands stretch- ing far away toward the rising or setting sun, like cultivated gardens, broken only by the occasional groves, the frequent farm houses, with their clustering barns, the tall poplars around them or the well-built fences and green hedges.


Having thus briefly noticed the boundaries, the topography and the geologi- cal features of the country, we hasten to detail, at greater length, its


SETTLEMENT.


There is probably no county in Illinois that has accumulated its population from such various sources as has Kane County. From first to last there have been no less than ten distinct and separate nationalities which have furnished, not individuals only, but colonies, who have made their settlements in the borders of the staunch old county ; representatives of whom, in greater or less number, are among the residents to-day.


Beginning with the Hoosiers, who came into the county as early as 1833, following closely upon the rear guard of Scott's army upon the settlement of the Sauk, or, as it is commonly known, the Blackhawk war, we find settle- ments successively of Yankees, from Massachusetts and New York ; Scotch, Irish, Pennsylvania Dutch, Welsh, French, Scandinavians, Germans, and, lastly, the war gave us, as one of its legacies, Sambo. Gen. Scott pushed the Indians back with his little army, which cut its way through the Little Woods, fording the river at the big bend near what is now known as Silver Glen, and left its trail broad and deep across the prairie through the townships of Elgin, Plato and Burlington.


Not only did the artillery and supply trains leave a broad track in their wake, but Death also traveled with the column, and, under the dread name of cholera, took captive many prisoners who have never yet been mustered for exchange, but whose bones have mouldered away on rounded slopes in Plato, where the mounds may be seen and noted to-day. As Scott solved the Indian question in Illinois, people from Virginia, Kentucky, Southern Indiana and Illinois, all called by the general name of " Hoosiers," came into the county, in big canvas-covered wagons drawn by four or five yoke of oxen, and called "prairie schooners." They located on the southern side of groves and in sunny exposures beside streams and springs, and fenced only as much land as would suffice for a little corn, and gave themselves up generally to the pleasures- of the chase, game being abundant. They were hardy people, fond of pioneer life, regardless of the forms and ceremonial restraints of advanced civilization,


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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.


but noted for their neighborly kindness and hospitality. They lived a careless, easy life, and on the irruption of the Yankees, as a general thing, went again to the border, at that time in Iowa. They were generally inclined to Metho- dism in their religious views, and took naturally to it when Bishop Asbury's itinerating preachers came to the front.


The Alexanders came to Geneva from Southern Illinois, about 1835, and John Tucker, a fine courtly gentlemen from Virginia, came about 1836-7, and with his sons, Charles and John R., and several daughters, settled in Campton, on what is still held as the Tucker homestead. Some of the daughters married into the Corron families, thus connecting two of the oldest families in the county. Richard J. Hamilton, Col. Strode and Buckner J. Morris, largely interested at that time in Kane County, also came from Kentucky, but located in Chicago. Bird built a log house on his claim near the ravine, just north of A. M. Herrington's farm house, in Geneva. Haight built his house near the large spring just opposite the old Webster House that was in Geneva. Crow built on the east side of the river. Newton Shelby took up the site of East St. Charles, and sold all of the claim north of the main street to Calvin Ward, in 1835, for $75. J. M. Laughlin made his claim at Round Grove, east of St. Charles, and subsequently purchased it of the Government. He married into the family of Gartons, who lived near him. John Hammers took up the old Western Enterprise Claim, just east of St. Charles Village, and subse- quently sold out and moved to Hoosier Grove, northeast of Elgin, where, with Abe Leatherman, he soon gathered about them a fine sturdy lot of brother Hoosiers, many of whom are still living in the western part of Cook County, and make Elgin their market. Wm. Franklin located the claim now known as the Gray farm, near Laughlin's, and the Stewarts located on the Dutton farm. At Dundee, around its sheltering mounds so picturesque and beautiful, and beside its clear, unfailing springs, Rice and Dewees squatted and built the Spring Mills, supplied with power by the springs which flow from the mounds, which subsequently have proven to be valuable sources of wealth in material for the justly celebrated white brick of Dundec. They also built the usual accompaniment, in those days, of a grist-mill, a distillery to provide a market for the corn raised in the county, on the principal that as corn in the raw was unpalatable, yet if it was worked up into whisky, a little of it could be worried down.


Wmn. Welch also came, an old veteran, whose history reaches back into the bloody days of Boone, in Kentucky, and who was one of Boone's companions in many a weary hunt and dangerous campaign. In 1812, Mr. Welch took a supply train from Blue Lick, Ky., through the unbroken wilderness in Ohio, Pennyslvania and New York, to the army at Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario. It was a thrilling story to hear " Uncle Billy " relate this episode in his life. Benj. Marks, a relative of the Welches, entered large tracts of land in the town- ships of Elgin and St. Charles at the land sale, the patents for which from the


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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.


Government, signed by John Tyler, President, are on record in our Recorder's office. The Oatmans came early and staid late, Jesse Oatman being still an honored resident of the town of Dundee. The Ashbaughs, a large family of large boned, muscular men and women, came and settled down in the north- western part of the town, and Andrew, one of the sons, still resides on the old homestead. The Ashbaughs had a huge Hoosier breaking plow, with which, and a team of eight yoke of oxen, they broke up prairie in nearly every town in the northern part of the county. The Ashbaughs and their breaking team were an institution in the early history of the county, and no record of those times would be complete without honorable mention of their doings.


Strode, a brother of the Colonel, settled just north of the town line, where he took up a large tract of land and subsequently bought it of the Government, and which he held until within a short time ago. John R. Tucker bought a large tract of land in the northern part of Campton, and added farm to farm until, at his death, his heirs divided up among themselves as noble a patrimony as has fallen to any children in the county. On the old Tucker homestead can be viewed one of the rarest landscapes in this region.


Just south of the house, as the road rises to the summit toward St. Charles, the beholder stands in the center of a magnificent sweep of prairie and timber. To the west and southwest stretches a natural basin of prairic, the horizon of which is bounded by the wooded slopes in the southern part of the town. To the northwest lie the fertile lands of Burlington, and north and northeast he looks out over the splendid farms of Plato and Elgin with the city's spires in the distance. Eastward are the woods on the river, and the slopes beyond in Du Page County. Southeast, St. Charles nestles on the banks of the Fox, and the Court House-the judgment seat to many a willing and unwilling litigant -shows its white walls, distance lending its enchantments in concealing the ugly iron spots in its surface which so vex the eye on nearer inspection. Southward, the view is closed in by the grove of noble old oaks, a portion of the original forest which has been left standing, thanks to the discovery of coal and its general use for fuel.


There is another fine view on the old Oatman homestead, north of the present village of Dundee. The house, a roomy and capacious one, is built at the foot of a finely wooded bluff nearly a mile from the river; and in front of it, and reaching to the river, is a magnificent field of bottom land, as level as a house floor, which takes a circular sweep southward until it is shut in by the bluff, which, at the distance of nearly a mile, comes down to the river, from which it rises abruptly from that point to the village two miles below.


These old Hoosier families did not all "go West," however, on the advent of the Eastern men, but intermarried with the new comers, and raised up chil- dren, who have become and are a pride to their families and an honor to our county. Many of our most worthy and honored citizens to-day are repre- sentatives of those old families. Among them are Jesse Oatman, Thomas R.


1


225


HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.


Welch and Andrew Ashbaugh, of Dundee; George Hammers, whose daughter is the estimable wife of D. F. Barclay ; Leatherman and M. J. Amick, of Elgin; the Corrons, Robert, Joseph P. and Wesley, of Clintonville and Campton ; J. M. Laughlin, of Round Grove ; Julius Alexander, of Geneva, beside many others, descendants of the first white men who came to the county to stay and make for themselves a local habitation and a name within its borders.


The first ripple of the incoming tide of Eastern immigration from New York and New England showed itself in 1834 in Kane County, while Waubansie, the war chief of the Pottowattomies, and his people yet held possession of the country. In 1835, Capt. C. B. Dodson removed the old chief and his tribe to Council Bluffs and Kansas, and the beautiful ridge on the west bank of the Fox, just north of Aurora, in which the tribe had buried its dead for many suns, was claimed by McNamara and others; and soon the bones of the once powerful tribe were exposed by the plowshare, and the implements of the chase placed beside the dead warriors gathered as relics or cast aside as rubbish. Waubansie was the friend of the whites, and strongly resisted his removal from the scenes of his youthful exploits and the acts of bravery of his later years; but the decree was inexorable; the white man wanted his land, and the old warrior turned from his home much in the same humor his pale-face brother would if a stronger power than he could say, " My people want this country, therefore you will move on."


New England and New York gave Kane County a class of men who estab- lished its reputation for good order on a firm basis, organized its legal existence, began its system of manufactures which have been so wonderfully developed, laid the foundation of its excellent schools, built its early churches and gave it its splendid farms, the real source of all its wealth. Other good men and true have come in from other parts and nobly helped in the splendid achievements of suc- cess and fame, who will be named under the heads of other colonizations. Mas- sachusetts sent of her sons from 1835 to 1840, as follows: The " Hub " gave us Charles Patten, of the " old corner," C. A. Buckingham, the different Clark families, Scott and his son Charles, Samuel N. and the family of Marshall Clark, Peter Sears, Cleveland, Whiting and Haskins at Geneva ; Major Osborn at Batavia, and Hunt and the Brookses at St. Charles. The Wards and Durants came from the Connecticut Valley and settled in St. Charles; the Bunkers of Geneva and Kaneville were New Bedford men, while the Berkshire hills, gor- geous in their glories of crimson and gold, gave up the Kingsleys, Wilmarths, Hoxies, Masons, McClouds, Brownings, Slades, Parkers and Wells, at Dundee and vicinity, and the Judds at Sugar Grove. The Aments, Alexis Hall, the Longs, the Severances of Big Rock, who settled in' what was called the " Col- ony " in that township, W. B. Plato at Aurora, and the Danfords-five brothers -Eben, the inventor of the double motioned sickles for mowing machines and the super-heating steam generator, at Geneva, all came from the old Bay State. Dr. Le Baron, our late worthy and competent State Entomologist, came from classic Andover.




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