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 21
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A mistake which occurred at the Circuit Clerk's office of Kane County, some years ago, sent two brothers into their new allegiance with different family names, which are still maintained. B. and Frank Kindblade were brothers, but when Frank made his declaration of intention to become a citizen of this glo- rious republic, by reason of his meager knowledge of the English language, he gave his name as Kimball as near as he could be understood, and when his final certificate was issued Frank became known no more as Kindblade, the name his brother bears, but Kimball.
The ancestry of this people is an honorable one, and of which they may well be proud. The Scandinavian race has given to the world some of its greatest intellects, in science, literature and the arts. Tycho Brahe, the founder of prac- tical astronomy and instructor of the great Kepler, and Linnaeus, the great bot- anist, whose works are the standard in that science to-day, lead the grand pro- cession. Ericsson, the master mechanic and inventor of the caloric engine and various other helps for man, as well as the projector and constructor of the " cheese box on a raft " that met the Confederate ram, Merrimae, in Norfolk Bay, and sent her back from her work of destruction to her covert, crippled and disabled, giving joy to millions of loyal hearts, many of whom look upon the little Monitor's appearance just at the opportune moment as something scarcely less than providential, is also an honored member of that procession.
In musie, this fair-haired and blue-cyed race has given us a divine trinity, viz. : Ole Bull, the incomparable violinist ; Jenny Lind, the Swedish nightingale, whose warblings have entranced the world, and Christine Nilsson, the matchless queen of song, before whose throne millions have bowed and worshiped.
In literature, the gifted and noble woman, Fredrika Bremer, whose books are read in almost every tongue, stands out like a beacon on a mountain top ; and what child is there who has not laughed and eried by turns over the fairy tales of the northern magician and king of youth, Hans Christian Andersen, whose gentle, loving life has been crowned with a happy, serene and peaceful elose?
The first white men who came into the wilderness of the Northwest were Pere Marquette, the great Jesuit missionary, Joliet, the merchant, and La Salle,
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. the trader and explorer. The first two explored the Mississippi as far south as Arkansas in 1673, and returned by way of the Illinois to Chicago, then an Indian village. The latter spent the Winter of 1680 near Peoria. Marquette died on the shore of Lake Michigan. When the fur trade was opened, the French voyagers became the avant couriers of the new commerce, and intermar- ried with various Indian tribes, and trapped and hunted and acted as guides to the later expeditions. French families came in very early, and made settlements at the sites of Dubuque, Mackinaw, Green Bay, St. Louis and Kaskaskia. There are several reservations in Cook County set off to the French half breeds ; one on the Aux Plaines is known now as the Lafrombois tract or reservation. There are others to " Billy Caldwell," Robinson and Miranda. One of them covered the present site of Wilmette, and was called Ouilmette.
The Baubiens came very early to Chicago, while it was but a garrison, in fact. Mark Beaubien is now living at Naperville. The French have settled in Kane County in but one locality-Aurora. There quite a large colony has settled first and last, commencing in 1845 and running up to 1855, and later even. We find the LaClares-Peter and Alexander-buying land in the Big Woods, then a large body of magnificent timber, in 1845. Leon Mayeaux- sometimes spelled Layon Mayo, Layean Mayeau, Layhew Mayhew, and Layo Mayhew-came about the same time, and so did old Stephen Mowrey. Among the earlier French settlers at Aurora may be named Touissaint, La Tranquilitte, Peter Leplant, Charles Benoit (sometimes spelled Benwire and Benway), Lean- der Baltasand, the Leveques, Bernard Tonnar, Francis Nadeau, Alfred Deslau- riers, Frank Sylvester, Ed. Vouchee, Louis Lebont, Joseph Robere, Louis Suviner, Peter Brasseaux, Louis LeBeaux, James Jaquenon, Jean Baptist Hubert, Joseph Ratelle, Benoit Moisant, Joseph Lamoureaux, Louis Laplanck, U. Laundre, Nick Presche, and last, though by no means least, C. F. Jauret, the Master Mechanic of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and inventor of some contrivance for use on railways which is being extensively used. The religion of our French citizens is generally Catholic.
The Durants of St. Charles and Raymonds of Elgin are descendants of some of the old Huguenot families of France.
The German immigration, which began in the Northwest about 1836, with a single family, has become an irruption. Commencing on the shore of Lake Michigan, the ever increasing army has moved steadily westward in an un- broken phalanx, through Cook, Lake and Du Page Counties into Kane, with but few interruptions. Here and there it has met a community of original settlers, which has resisted its advance, but it speedily flanked it, and passed on to new conquests beyond, leaving the garrison behind to beleaguer and capture by detail the few outposts remaining, and take full possession of the land. The western towns of Cook County, which twenty years ago had scarcely a German inhabitant, are now mostly occupied by them. Nearly every sale of a farm in the counties above named, including the eastern portion of Kane
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County, is made to a German. The eastern portion of Dundee, Elgin, Geneva, Batavia and the Big Woods-or what was once that fine body of timber-are almost wholly occupied by this energetic, pushing, thriving race of Saxons. They have subdued the once famous Big Woods, and what, but twenty years ago, was one solid body of splendid oak, hickory and maple, is now finely cul- tivated farms, with scarcely a stump to be seen to tell the story of what was once there. The German is found everywhere, and in all kinds of business. He makes money, and is satisfied to make but a little, but he contrives, in what- ever business he enters, to make his income exceed, be it ever so little, his out- go; hence, we hear of no German paupers. The German is given to sociality, and hence he spends his money freely among his friends, especially with his own family, if he has one. Father, mother and children enter alike into the pleasure of the hour, whatever it may be. The Germans have attained to such prominence in numbers in Kane County, they have become important factors in politics, especially in Dundee, Elgin and Aurora. Scarcely an election is held in those towns, at which there is not some German elected to an office. They support. cheerfully, the public school, and such as are church members are zealous and consistent.
John Glos settled in St. Charles, where, for several years, he followed his trade of cabinet making, at which he was an adept. He came, in 1836, direct from Germany, to which he never returned until the year 1874, when he went to revisit the scenes of his boyhood in the Fatherland which all Germans love, no matter how pleasant their surroundings are here, nor how many years may have passed since they left "dear Bingen on the Rhine." Mr. Glos has held many offices of trust in Du Page County, in which his residence has been for the greater portion of his sojourn in this country. The first German who came to Kane County was John Peter Snyder, who still resides at North Aurora.
Levi Footh, a Bohemian, drove stage from Chicago to Galena, through El- gin, in 1839-40, for Frink & Walker. He subsequently purchased Govern- ment lands in Virgil, where he now resides, together with several brothers who have since joined him from his native land.
Joseph Kapis came to Elgin in 1845, and worked in the woolen factory and subsequently also bought land in Virgil.
Jacob Mueller (now known as Jacob Miller) so well known as the manufac- turer of cigars at Aurora, first located at Elgin in 1853 or thereabouts.
Martin Straussel came into Elgin in 1848, from Chicago, where he came about 1840.
Schweigert bought land in Section 1 of Aurora, in 1846, right in the heart of the Big Woods, and Adam Hartmann, in 1848, located near him.
A large number of Germans came into Kane County in 1848. Among those who are or have been prominent and leading men among them, are the following in addition to those above named : At Elgin, Joseph Pfordresher,
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Gail Borden
ELGIN.
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY. 239
Charles Siedel, William Damisch, Christopher Sohle, Fred Fehrman, Adolph Sass, Joe Pabst, Henry Bierman, William Heideman and the Adlers.
In Dundee, whither they first came in 1853, Fred Haas, proprietor of the celebrated Spring Mills, Henry Plinke, the Lutheran Minister, and Hagen, proprietor of the brick yards, and Geo. Pfisterer.
The Schochs, a large family and their relatives, settled in the east part of Geneva and adjoining town in Du Page, with several other families from the same part of Germany.
Fred Drahms, a fine mechanic, came from the shores of the Baltic Sea, and settled in Geneva as early as 1854. His son, August, went into the United States service during the rebellion, while he was a mere boy, so small that his cavalry overcoat dragged on the ground. He subsequently studied for the min- istry and is now an eloquent divine, located near San Francisco.
In Aurora, the largest number of Germans settled, coming in from 1850 and on. Among them are the following notable ones : The large family of Lies, with their relations ; John Plein, and Reising, the Youngles brothers, and a score or more of the Cassalmans and their kindred, Frieders as many more, Freidweiler, Joseph Deimel, the Wolfs, Lugg, of the firm of Lugg & Plein ; John and Joseph Reising, the merchants; Chas. Blasey, the brewer; Dr. Jassoy, Weise, Encke. Hammerschmidt, Breeswick, John Adam Brunnen- meyer, John Joseph Scharschug, Eitelgeorge, Felsenheld, Morris Henoch, Fred Rang, George Pfaffle, Henry Fickensher, Rutishauser, Goldsmidt, the Metzners, Canisius, Staudt & Karl, the druggists; Rev. Ernst, Henry Buhre, the Lutheran minister; Nicholas Stenger, Leins, the exquisite painter who deco- rates the Pullman palace cars at the car shops, and whose handiwork may be seen and enjoyed in the beautiful frescoes in Staudt's drug store; and lastly Gus Pfrangle, the worthy Postmaster at Aurora.
In Sugar Grove we find two sturdy farmers, John Banker and Nicholas Henkes, and Ruteshell and Ohlinger are their neighbors across the line in Blackberry.
A. T. Fischer bought the Elliott farm in Campton, a splendid property, vahied at $20,000.
In Plato, Adam and Randolph Bode, Reibel. Betzlinger and Ripberger and others are the representatives of the Northern Goths that overran Rome.
Hampshire Collectors gather taxes from Kasermann, Schweiger, Reinike, Shetter Blazer, and others from the Rhine; and in Burlington, George E. Schaiver, Grallemont and Meith pay tribute. Anton Loser, J. F. Thorwarth and others are leading merchants in Aurora.
Among the Germans who have occupied public positions in Kane County, may be named Charles J. Metzner, for several years State's Attorney for the Twenty-eighth Circuit, and his brother Carl, Clerk of the Aurora Court of Common Pleas ; John Reising, Supervisor of Aurora ; John Plain, Collector, and August Pfrangle, Postmaster of the same city.
B
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
The tenth and last colonization in Kane County is that of our American citizens of African descent, the bulk of whom came in as contrabands of war during the rebellion caused on their account. There have been colored persons abiding among us ever since the county was organized, in 1836 ; but who the first one was that cast his shadow on, and left his footmark in, the soil of old Kane, it is hard to tell. The first one came by the underground railroad, but, not liking the country, went immediately to Canada. Not being deemed worthy of consideration before they were entitled to suffrage, they existed simply as howers of wood and drawers of water to the Philistines with whom they sojourned. But times change if men do not, and the day came round when " the might was. with the right," and Sambo was a voter. At once he rose to the level of his citizenship, and from obscurity and disregard he passed into notice and consid- eration. Candidates at once included him among their friends, and shook hands with him and " cow-shedded " him and "stood treat " and cajoled and flattered him, and tried to induce him to vote for them, just the same as they did his white compeers.
The colored people have the privilege of the schools now, and the rising. generation-which is coming on thick and fast-ought to be intelligent and influential. Many of the young men among them are educating themselves, and by the excellent progress they have already made, give promise of more than average ability. Young Brown, of Aurora, and Terrell, of Geneva, are good specimens of their class, and are studious and industrious, and are bound to rise. The colored people are settled mostly in the river towns of the county. They have churches at Elgin, St. Charles, Batavia and Aurora, which are well attended.
While there never was a regular colony of Englishmen settled in Kane County, yet there have been, in various localities, individuals, sporadic cases, from the land upon whose empire the sun never sets, who are entitled to hon- ' orable mention in this history. John Smith, with his boys, Henry and sunny- hearted Tilden, were Englishmen, and lived just east of Dundee village, on the farm where Tilden and his father died, and on which Henry now resides. - James Knott & Sons were merchants in Elgin, and established an unblemished reputation for integrity and financial ability. Ed. Merrifield also lived east of the city for many years. The father to Ed. and Vinnie Lovell was an En- glishman, and gave to Elgin two remarkably fine sons. Ed. is a rising young lawyer, and Vincent S. (which was his father's name before him) is an equally promising journalist, having held a prominent position on the Albany Argus for several years. John Lovell, an uncle of the above named young men, lives in Plato, and has been and is a prominent citizen of the town. The Meads, Greeks, Marshalls, Pitwoods and Christian came to St. Charles. Dr. Mead became an eminent physician and surgeon, and was most successful in the treatment of insane persons, and many of his ideas have, since his removal from the country, been incorporated in the management of our hospitals for the
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
insane. This Dr. Mead must not be confounded with Dr. Thompson Mead, of Batavia, who was a Yankee, or at least American born. Dr. John Thomas, an Englishman, came first to Virginia, thence to Kendall County, and then to St. Charles, where he established, in 1841, a newspaper and called it the St. Charles Patriot, Fox River Advocate and Kane County Herald. If the edi- torials in the paper were as long proportionately as its name, there was more work done on it, editorially, than on all the papers in the county now. Ward Rathbone was an early settler in Geneva, and prominently known throughout the county. Later on, in 1844-9, there came four brothers from Halifax, En- gland, named James, Joseph, John and Benjamin Wilson. Three of them settled in Geneva, and one in Virgil, but he subsequently moved to Geneva. Two of the brothers were printers, and published successively the Geneva Mer- cury and Advertiser and Kane County Republican. Joseph was clerk for an Charles Patten at the " Old Corner " for twenty years. Benjamin published interlinear translation of the Greek Testament, translated and compiled by him- self, called the "Emphatic Diaglot." It is a valuable assistant to the student.
In Batavia, Joel and J. O. McKee and George B. Moss located very early. Joel McKee and Moss run, for several years, the flouring-mills at the north end of the town. Mr. McKee's reputation and character were as white and pure as his flour. He was a Christian gentleman in every sense of the word, and when he died Kane County lost one of her really good and true men. Mr. Moss was very much of a gentleman, and died highly respected by all who knew him. Both gentlemen left sons who are now residents of the county. The Mckees were not Englishmen, but were from the Bruce colonies in the north of Ireland. James Risk, formerly Sheriff of the county, also came from the latter locality, as did Dr. H. M. Crawford, of St. Charles. Shepherd Johnston, known as the banker Johnston, and Richard Summers, settled in Big Rock. Johnston was the father of Shepherd Johnston, Jr., for a long time Secretary of the Board of Education of Chicago, and Charles Johnston, formerly Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Aurora. Summers was father of the well-known Dick Summers, " mine host" of the Richmond, in Chicago, for many years before the big fire of October, 1871.
W. B. West and Peter H. Johnson settled in Blackberry, although subse- quently Mr. West came to Geneva. Mr. West was widely known, having been engaged in banking for many years. He was one who made as good a bargain for himself as he could, but, when once his word was given, it was sure to be made good in the time promised. He never oppressed a man nor pushed him, when he showed any disposition to keep his obligations, and was ever willing to extend the time of payment when the debt could not readily be met at ma- turity, and that, too, when the security was not A 1. His judgment was most excellent, and he met with but few losses in business. Out of a personal estate left by him of $200,000 there was but a small amount that proved worthless, and that, too, after a banking business of forty years. A daughter of Mr.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
West married Hon. N. N. Ravlin, Representative to the State Legislature from Kane County for two terms, and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for several years. His only surviving son is at present in California, engaged in atlas publishing, with Thos. H. Thompson, a son of another old settler of Kane County, in Dundee. Mr. West was once beguiled, and he often laughingly told the story, though at his own expense. Charley Sexton, a "dead beat," who once lived in Geneva, went to Mr. West to get his note for $50 discounted for sixty days, offering to take $25 for it and leave his watch as security. Mr. West did not exercise his usual caution in examining the security offered, but discounted the note and laid the " collateral" away in his safe. When the note matured, Sexton was non est, and Mr. West, on examination, found the watch left as security to be worth about five dollars. Mr. West acknowledged himself fairly beaten for once, and charged the loan up to profit and loss.
Peter H. Johnson has one of the finest farms in Blackberry. Johnson's Mound, the highest point of land in the county, is situated on the farm, and Mr. Johnson's dwelling is built on a commanding point on the side of it, and overlooks the country for miles around. It is a great summer resort for pic- nics and excursions. Major J. H. Mayborne, also an Englishman, came to this country in 1825. From that date until 1846, he remained in the State of New York, engaged in the pursuit of agriculture and study of law. Removing thence to Chicago, he remained there until 1848, when he made his home in Geneva, where he has since been well known as an able and honorable attorney. His services, during the war of the rebellion, were important, and he held, at ts close, the rank of Major, by which title he is still familiarly known. Since then, he has held the important civil office of State Senator for four years, and was elected Supervisor in 1872, a position which he still retains. He is re- garded throughout the county as a man of fine legal attainments, and is well known beyond his own immediate section. Mark Yeoman and the Sharps, Reads and Henrys settled in Virgil. Benjamin Boyes, a prosperous merchant in Geneva, came from England to Geneva in 1844, but only stayed till the following Spring, when he went into the town of Northfield, Cook County, where he remained until the year 1863, when he returned to Geneva and embarked in the mercantile business. The first job of work he did in Geneva was to make a pair of boots for David Howard, who was at work at that time (1844) building the stone flouring-mill on the west side of the river. Mr. Boyes had worked one month at the shoemaker's trade in England, but still tried his hand at boot making, and Mr. Howard looked at the work rather doubtfully, but thought they would answer to wear in the water, and accepted them. Mr. Boyes did not make any more boots. We do not know of a descend- ant of the heroic John Sobieski, of unhappy Poland, in Kane County, unless it be our worthy citizen, David L. Zabriskie, of St. Charles. He may be, for aught we know, a true descendant of the iron-crowned king; but if he is not he is every whit as gallant and courteous a gentleman.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
The great agglomeration of people, from the different nations of the earth, who have made their homes in Kane County, is what has made the old county what she is; has transformed the virgin prairie and primeval forests into well - tilled farms, thriving villages and busy cities; has brought her from a wilder- ness, traversed only by the feet of the red man in pursuit of game or his enemies, to her rank among the foremost counties in the Empire State of the West. Coming from different countries, speaking different tongues, having dif- ferent tastes, following different customs, yet all have had but one aim, to make the home of their adoption prosperous and happy. To that end they have subdued her soil, enlarged her manufactories, established her beneficent insti- tutions, enhanced her value and extended her political influence, until now, in proportion to her area, she has no superior and but few equals among her sister counties in the State. She has furnished statesmen for the halls of Congress, and Generals and leaders for the armies of the nation. No one class of her varied population can claim all of her virtues, nor is it to be charged with all the vices incident to communities and people. In the war of the rebellion, all classes sprang forward to uphold the flag with rare and noble unanimity, and bore it on to victory on many blood-stained fields. All, all have borne aloft the shield of old Kane, and sung pæans to her praise.
The native American mind tends to self government as naturally as the babe turns to the maternal font for nourishment; and the early organization of Kane County into a body corporate with a legal existence, while there were less than two hundred legal voters within its borders, is proof of that proposition. At the time of the first election in Kane County, there was none of the large foreign population in the county which has subsequently settled in it, save the Youngs and Wheeler, of New Brunswick, Germans, and John Glos and John P. Snyder; also Walter Wilson and the Moodys from bonnie Scotland. The organization, with the above exceptions, was entirely the work of the American born population. Kane County, at that time, included in its limits its present territory, all of DeKalb County, a portion of McHenry as now organized, and a portion of Kendall County, but the first election was held at Geneva, in the log house of James Herrington. The election was for county officers to put the machinery of a legal existence into operation, and there were 180 votes polled. For the office of Sheriff, James Herrington, the father of our Repre- sentative to the General Assembly, received 91, and B. F. Fridley, whose home was then in Oswego, 89 votes. Asa McDole received 115 votes for Coroner, while his opponent, Haiman Miller, received 58. Relief Duryea had 96 votes for Recorder of Deeds, the office at that time and up to 1849 being a distinct and separate one from the Clerk of the Circuit Court, and Calvin Pepper one vote. Mark W. Fletcher received 141 votes for County Surveyor, and Colton Knox 29. The vote for County Commissioners, which was the style of county government then, was as follows: Solomon Dunham 155, Eli Barnes 172, Ebenezer Morgan 119, E. D. Terry 22, Ira Minard 70, Allen P.
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Hubbard 2. Allen P. Hubbard, Nathan Collins and John Griggs were the Judges, and James T. Wheeler and Selden M. Church, Clerks of the election. The three Judges are dead, Mr. Wheeler is living on his old homestead just north of St. Charles village. Of the candidates voted for, Fridley and Fletcher are living in the county, the first in Aurora and Fletcher on his original farm north of St. Charles on the east side of the river. The most, if not all, of the others are dead.
There seemed to be something wrong about this first election, for on the 1st day of August following another general election was held for the same officers, which resulted differently. There were also members of Congress and the General Assembly elected at the same time, and the facilities for voting were increased wonderfully. Instead of all being required to come to Geneva to vote, there were nine voting precincts, viz .: Ellery, which comprised a portion of Kendall County; Orange, which was in the central part of DeKalb and western part of Kane County; Syckamore (as it is spelled on the returns); Pleasant Grove, in the southern part of the present territory of McHenry County ; Kishwaukee, southwest part of Kane and part of Kendall; Somonauk, in DeKalb; Fox River at Aurora, or McCarty's Mills, as it was then called; Sandusky at Geneva, extending from Clybourne's to near Elgin, and west to what is now Kaneville; and Lake, which included everything north of the last precinct named, to the county line. At this election there were 351 votes polled, as follows :
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