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 24
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
The State's Attorney got hold of the real state of facts, and desiring some sport, drew up a most elaborate indictment. He charged that the defendant, one Henry, alias Hank, McLean, against the peace and dignity of the people of the State of Illinois, with malice aforethought and evil intent, did, with clubs, bludgeons, guns, pistols, swords and other murderous instruments, beat, bruise, wound, maim and do to death, certain animals, to-wit: shcep, lambs, rams, wethers and ewes, of the property of Atkinson, living then and there in the peace of the people. As soon as the indictment was filed in the Court, it was whispered around that there would be fun on the trial, and McLean was ordered to be ready, and an early day set for the hearing. The business of the Court was pushed through rapidly, and the afternoon of the term, when everybody was jolly and ready for fun, the case of the people vs. Henry S. McLean was called and the defendant arraigned, the indictment slowly and measuredly read by the Clerk, and then the Court, in solemn judicial dignity, asked the ques- tion, "Is the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty in manner and form as charged in the indictment?" McLean then arose from his half bent, slouch- ing position, and standing erect, replied, "May it please the Court, if I should say I am not guilty, I should lie; and if I should say I am guilty in manner and form as charged in the indictment, I should tell a d-d sight bigger lie; therefore, I stand mute !" The roar that shook the building, at this plea, so disturbed the blind and steady handed goddess, she dismissed the case, and her devotees adjourned to the hotel for a jolly wind up of the judicial proceedings.
The first Petit Jury of the county was as follows: Calvin Ward, Reed Ferson, Benj. H. Smith, E. K. Mann, S. H. Hamilton, James Latham, Charles Latten, John V. King, Jas. Ferson, John W. Douglas, Asa Merrill and Gideon Young. The term lasted three days, and there were in the time five jury trials, four changes of venue granted, fourteen judgments, amounting to $5,400, rendered, twenty suits continued, and five dismissed. The first order entered on the record was a rule to "plead by to-morrow morning," entered June 19, 1837, in the suit of Hugh C. Gibson and three female Gibsons vs. G. W. and Harrison Haynes and John Miller. The same order was entered in the case of seventeen plaintiffs vs. Thomas G. Getman, Thayer and the Haynes. The same seventeen plaintiffs recovered one cent damages and their costs of suit against the defendants.
Ransom Olds, Aaron Burbank, Jona. Kimball, Elizur Burbank and D. W. Elmore failed to respond to the process of the court, and attachments were ordered against them, but they came in at a subsequent term and purged them- selves of their contempt, and were dismissed with the costs. On motion of Jas. M. Strode, Jacob B. Mills was allowed to practice as an attorney in the court, and H. N. Chapman was similarly privileged on the motion of Giles Spring. John Douglas was the first alien who renounced his allegiance to his native country, and took Uncle Sam for his future Cæsar. He was a Scotch- man, and filed his declaration on the second day of the court.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
The second term of the court was held in September, 1837, by Judge Thomas. At this court, the afterward famous controversy of Anson Pease vs. John Peter Schneider, and John Peter Schneider vs. Anson Pease, first made its appearance on the docket, from which it did not disappear until after 1850. It grew out of the claim of the water power at Schneider's, now known as North Aurora. Pease was a litigous fellow, and a local rhymester, whose habitat was Aurora, in the early days, thus done him up in verse :
" Is-c M-r-1-t and Anson Pease Are the very d-1 to laugh and tease, Of whisky punch they'll drink enough To fill Fox River from bluff to bluff." .
The County Commissioners' Court had charge only of the fiscal concerns of the county, allowed the bills, levied the taxes and settled with the Sheriff, who was Tax Collector then. The first session of the court was in 1836, and the court was composed of Thomas H. Thompson, Claudius Townsend and Mark Daniels, County Commissioners, with Mark W. Fletcher, as Clerk.
The Elgin bar has ever been noted for its legal and forensic ability. Among its honored names are the first ones who came to the village, while it was yet a hamlet of but a few houses, and who practiced in the old Thirteenth Circuit, viz. : E. E. Harvey, who went into the military service at the call for volunteers in the Mexican war, and gave his life for the country, dying in Mexico; P. R. Wright, formerly Circuit Clerk, and now a resident of Cali- fornia ; I. G. Wilson, Judge of the old Thirteenth, and afterward the Twenty- eighth Circuit Court, and now an eminent member of the Chicago bar ; Chas. H. Morgan, formerly Judge of the Elgin and Aurora Courts of Common Pleas, and later U. S. Judge in one of the Territories ; Edmund Gifford, also a Judge in New Orleans ; and last, though not least, Sylvanus Wilcox, who so worthily occupied the bench of the Twenty-eighth Circuit. Judge Wilcox is the only one of the above named eminent lawyers who has an abiding place in Elgin.
The Probate Court, as first organized, was a very simple institution, con- sisting solely of a Probate Justice of the Peace, who was his own Clerk. No Sheriff or Bailiff guarded his tribunal or made his presence awe-inspiring by his cry of "Oyez ! oyez !" but in the simple guise of a Justice of the Peace, he settled the estates of the dead, dividing them among the living according to law or the will of the decedent.
The first estate administered upon in the county was that of Archibald Moody, who died July 27, 1836. Letters of administration thereon were granted to Lydia C. Moody, his widow, by Mark Daniels, Probate Justice, June 6, 1837, which was the first recorded act of the court. The Administra- trix gave bonds in the sum of $2,000, with Gideon Young as security.
The first will probated in the court was that of Warren Tyler, of St. Charles. It was dated September 10, 1837, and admitted to record on the testimony of Thomas P. Whipple and Mark Fletcher, November 6, 1837, this being the
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
second act of the court, and the first act of Isaac Wilson, Probate Justice. Diadema Tyler and Thomas P. Whipple were appointed Executors, and gave bonds in the sum of $6,000, with Reed Ferson and Ephraim Perkins security. The principal bequest was 360 acres of land, to which decedent held a claim under the claim laws of the country.
The first letters of guardianship issued were to Moses Shelby, as guardian of Rebecca Gillespie, on November 5, 1838, with Thomas P. Whipple as secu- rity in $200 bonds.
The old seal of the Probate Court was a copper block, with a weeping wil- low and tomb stone, emblematic, in those days, of the grief for the dead, but in the present it is more impressive of the cost of the funeral, and the wasting of the estate in settlement.
The Probate Justices gave way to the County Court in 1849, when Isaac G. Wilson, a son of the Isaac Wilson who performed the last two official acts above mentioned, was elected County Judge under the new Constitution, and James Herrington, County Clerk. These officers were elected in November, 1849, commissioned in December, and held the first term of the County Court, for county business, the following January, commencing on the 10th day of the month, 1850. The court was composed of Isaac G. Wilson, County Judge ; Andrew J. Waldron and Marcus White, Associate Justices, and James Her- rington, Clerk. The court allowed pauper bills to the amount of $138; court expenses, $165, and miscellaneous bills, $13. The court also granted John D. Wygant, of Batavia, and William G. Webster, of Geneva, grocers' licenses for a year for $25 each. It is needless to say the groceries to be sold were wet gro- ceries. The bonds of the County Judge, County Collector and Justices and Con- stables were approved, except some that were informal, which were rejected and new ones filed. Roads were ordered-reviewed and re-located, and an order passed that no more bills for the laying of roads would be allowed by the court. A. P. Hubbard and Thomas A. Scott were appointed a committee to examine into the financial condition of the county, and report its status at the March term of the court, which they did, and their report ordered printed ; but it is not recorded nor on file, and whether the county had much or little indebtedness, we cannot now know.
Gen. Elijah Wilcox, of Elgin ; Dr. D. D. Waite, of St. Charles, and W. B. Gillett, of Sugar Grove, were appointed a committee to divide the county into towns, according to the terms of Section 6 of the law of 1849, relating to township organization. They made a report and divided the county as it now stands, except as to the division of Geneva and Batavia, which was effected sub- sequently. They called Rutland, Jackson ; Plato, Homer, and Virgil, Frank- lin, but they were soon after changed as they are now known, E. R. Starks giving the name of his native town in Vermont to Jackson, and the town of Homer being honored with the name of our then worthy citizen and State Senator, Plato.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
Orsemus Wilson, Esq., Poor Master of Batavia, was directed to get Schultz, a pauper, boarded for less than $1.25 a week, if he could. Wm. R. Parker, Justice of the Peace, was told to hold on and not to issue any capias against Alvin Hyatt, whom he had found guilty of an assault and battery, and fined $15. The Court selected a Grand and Petit Jury for the March term of the Circuit Court, and adjourned. The last term of the court for county business was held June 3, 1850, and then the Supervisors took the purse strings of the treasury in hand, and have held them ever since.
The first settlement of the Treasurer of the county was made December 1, 1838, and the whole amount of funds received by him was $548.54, including thirty license fees, and fines. His compensation was $10.87. The County Treasurers, from 1836 to 1841, received as the total amount of revenue of the county during the time the sum of $3,982.07. The commissions amounted to $47. They couldn't afford to pay much to make their election sure. David Dunham was Recorder of Deeds from August 1, 1836, to September 1, 1843 ; but that was not much of a bonanza, for he used to write up his records in his store on rainy days, and other times when business was not pressing. The whole seven years of his official term are comprised in the first three books of- the Recorder's office, and number 997 instruments.
The first tax levied in the county was in the year 1836, and was laid on personal property only, real estate not being taxable until 1847, five years after the land sales in 1842. The amount of the levy was about eight hundred dol- lars, and B. F. Fridley was Sheriff and ex officio County Collector, and John Griggs was County Assessor. The first tax levied after real estate became taxable was in 1847. The assessment of lands and village lots amounted to $446,185, and of personal property to $321,320. The taxes levied were for State purposes, $2,839; county purposes, $2,302.54, and for roads, $1,535.01. Total, $6,677.29.
The first instrument recorded in the county was an agreement for a deed be- tween James Crow and Wallace Hotchkiss, for lands which said Crow claimed -300 acres of prairie and 160 acres of timber. The prairie land was on the east side of the Fox River, in Batavia, and the timber was in the Big Woods. The amount of purchase money was $2,000. This instrument was filed for record January 23, 1837, and recorded in book 1, page 1.
The first village plat recorded was that of Geneva, on May 8, 1837, at 11 o'clock A. M., in Book 1, page 9 ; and St. Charles-or as it was then called and recorded, Charleston-filed her plat the same day, at 2 o'clock P. M., and it follows Geneva in the same book, on page 11. The first deed recorded is one from Richard J. Hamilton and James Herrington, by Mark W. Fletcher, their attorney in fact, to Kane County, for a block of ground in Geneva, known as the public square. This was the original court house block, on which the origi- nal court house was built.
The first mortgage filed for record was a deed from James Herrington to Jacob Miller, both of Geneva, July 5, 1837. It conveys a two-thirds interst
1
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
in 110 acres of timber on the east side of the river, in Geneva, and was the original claim of Haight and Bird. Miller gave Harrington an agreement to re-convey on the payment of $300 in one year, with 12 per cent. interest, quarterly. This was the only way security could be given on real estate, as the laws of the United States made it unlawful to mortgage the land until patents were issued for it.
Large tracts of land were entered at the land sale, by parties in trust for others, and bonds given for deeds in payment of the sums advanced, and such interest as was agreed upon. Right here comes to mind an incident growing out of that practice, partially in Elgin, which shows that the confidence game was practiced in early times as well as later in that city.
In Western New York lived, in 1840-41 and later, a man named William Mills, familiarly known and called by many of the early settlers in Elgin, as " Billy " Mills. He was a noted man among the people of Elgin, in those early days, and was a man of wealth and good report. Some time in the Spring of 1845 or 1846, a genteelly dressed and self-possessed gentleman came into the stage house at Tibbals', in Elgin, and represented himself to be a nephew of "Billy " Mills, of New York. He had come out to loan money and make investments, and wanted a good room, regardless of expense, and so Tibbals put the best room of his really good hostelry at his service, and treated him as the nephew of as prime a favorite as Billy Mills ought to be shown.
The news of the arrival of a nephew of Billy Mills was soon noised abroad, and the fact that he had lots of money to loan and invest was as soon known. He was at once the center of attraction. The farmers who had bought their land through others, and were paying 18 to 24 per cent. for the accommoda- tion, immediately began to negotiate with the nephew of his uncle for loans to pay up the said advances, and at much lower rates of interest. Many, too, sought for further accommodations, to reloan the money at an advance on the rate the nephew charged. The days of Spring lengthened into Summer, and the Summer heats began to strengthen, and still the nephew basked in the sun- shine of " Uncle " Billy's fame and prestige, without a cloud or passing shower to disturb his tranquility. He suggested to his host, from time to time, that he was ready to pay his bill on presentation-" expected another remittance from Uncle Billy soon ; had loaned Deacon - a little cash to take up the mort- gage on his farm; would be all right as soon as another letter came," etc. Tibbals said it was all right, and continued to feed him in good style and drive him around the country behind a pair of spanking bays. One day, which he had set for fulfilling his engagement, the people came with their bonds and mort- gages drawn up in the most approved style, tricked out in sealing wax and red tape, to get the money to consummate the projects of their hearts, and move into the splendid castles in Spain which many of them had already erected. But the mails had failed to come in, and the disappointed ones were put off till an- other day. The day came, and with it again came the people and their secu-
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
rities, and also a letter from Billy Mills himself, to some one whose suspicious had been aroused and had communicated with Mills in regard to the " nephew," stating that the " nephew " was no relative of his, but was imposing on the good people of Elgin. The people looked foolish, as their castles disappeared, and especially those who had indulged in such rosy dreams of money loaning. But Tibbals, when the truth flashed upon him, was furious. If "our army swore terribly in Flanders," then Tibbals was worthy of a full Brigadier's com- mission in it. He mounted in hot haste his buck-board, and drove off at a slash- ing pace to Geneva to get sundry writs of capias, ne exeat and attachment, whereby he might get indemnity for the outlay he had made for the said nephew's comfort. The writs were duly issued and served upon the boarder. with an unknown alias, and in due course of time the trial came on before the Circuit Court and a jury. John J. Brown, the eloquent advocate in Chicago, at that time was retained by the defendant, and interposed a plea of non compos mentis. He did not try to rebut the evidence that was piled up by the prosecu- tion, but rather sought to make the testimony stronger by the cross-examination. The evidence being all in, and the counsel for the plaintiff having closed his case, the defense took the floor and began one of those impassioned appeals to the jury for which Mr. Brown was so noted. He showed conclusively to the jury and audience that the defendant, instead of being harassed by grasping creditors and unfeeling bailiffs, should be tenderly cared for by Christian men and women! The Court was convulsed with suppressed laughter, the jury and audience were in tears, and Tibbals himself rose and, wiping his eyes, stalked out of the court room, muttering to himself, " I'll be d-d if I knew I was such a wretch as to prosecute such a poor fool as that ! "
Among the first things established in the county for the general good, was the Yankee institution-the public school. With the yearning for a wider acre- age and larger gains, was the kindred spirit of knowledge how to attain to and use the increased facilities when they should be in hand. And so, by the time the settlers, in 1834, had built their shanties and staked out their claims, they looked for the school master, and, lo ! he was in their midst, and from the land where the pedagogue, male and female, is indigenous-Vermont. In the fall of 1834, a Mr. Knowles was enthroned in East Batavia, with the hazel brush as a scepter, to rule over and teach nine infantile subjects. The throne room was in a log cabin on Col. Lyon's claim, about one mile east of the river, and was the first school house built in the county. The school ma'am was but a short way behind, and her name was Prudence Ward, and her kingdom was in Ira E. Tyler's log house, in St. Charles, and she began her reign in 1835. This year, too, a Mr. Livingston taught school in East Geneva. The female pedagogues multiplied in the land greatly, so much so, that the male of the species, for a season, became extinct. Miss Charlotte Griggs, in Plato; Miss Amanda Cochrane, in Dundee ; Miss Harriet Gifford, in Elgin, and Mrs. Sterling, of Geneva, being the first teachers in their respective localities, all before the close of the year 1837.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
The first teachers' institute or normal school held in the county was con- vened in 1850, at the old court house in Geneva, under the fostering care of Father Brewster, who was the School Commissioner. Prof. Sweet was the Director, and John B. Newcomb, of Elgin ; Achsah Waite, of St. Charles ; Miss Fox, of Elgin, and Miss Kidder, afterward the wife of D. L. Eastman, of St. Charles, were chief assistants. The mystery of a minus quantity-" one less than nothing "-was lucidly explained by Miss Waite to many whose lives since then have been striking illustrations of the theorem. The first institute will never be forgotton by those who participated in it. The Marys and Fannys and Williams and Johns, how they did parse-but never declined-the verb "to love !" How they rattled on about the uttermost parts of the earth, and yet thought the sweetest place on earth was just there in the class. How the problem of two and two make four was solved in a twinkling, when the class in arithmetic was ordered to the Unitarian Church, and Mary Ann, of Big Rock, and the little black-eyed Miss W., from Sugar Grove, paired off with the young schoolmasters of Aurora. A certain cosy farm house in the southwestern part of the county will tell how two of these former mathematicians solved that other more difficult problem of life, and demonstrated that three from two make five ! Newcomb drilled us all in phonetics, and Sweet " elocuted " for our benefit, and we followed in concert until such a howl rose up the Genevans rushed to see what lunatic asylum had turned its inmates out for a holiday. The school- ma'ams that were, and those that would be, came in such numbers they could not all be accommodated at the residences of the people; but Father Brewster -God bless the good old man-was equal to the occasion, and so he called for supplies of bedding and rations, and soon the dancing hall of the Geneva House -then occupied and kept by Mr. Sterling-was transformed into a dormitory and kitchen, and the girls added to their theories the additional accomplishment of practical living. As we think of the two hundred and more girls, old and young, then present, we ask, with Holmes,
" Where are the Marys and Anns and Elizas, Living and lovely of yore ? Look in the columns of old Advertisers- Married and Dead by the score."
Elgin claims the first academy and the first college in the county. The academy was chartered in 1839, but was not opened until 1855, when the col- lege was built and transferred to the academy, and the two companies merged in one.
The first sermon preached in the county was by Rev. N. C. Clarke, in 1834, in the log house of Christopher Payne, the first actual settler in the county, east of Batavia. Mr. Clarke was one of the early missionaries sent out into the West to tell the " glad tidings " to the pioneers, and gather them into church societies and Sunday schools. He was one of God's noblemen, of a kindly, affectionate manner, truthful and sincere, and one who drew men to
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, better things by his own gentle and consistent ways quite as much as by his persuasive exhortations. No breath of suspicion ever attainted him, but he seemed to stand on the mountain top, in the clear sunlight of truth and moral- ity, always, from his first entrance into the county, until loving hands bore him tenderly to the beautiful eity of the dead that overlooks his old homestead, in Elgin.
His colleagues were Elder J. E. Ambrose and Elder Kimball. These men traveled on foot or on horseback, among the early settlers around Chieago, stop- ping where night overtook them, and receiving the hospitalities of the cabin, without money or without priee. Reverently asking the blessing of God upon all that they did, their lives were simple and unostentatious, their wants few and easily satisfied ; their teaching plain and unvarnished, touched with no elo- quenee save that of their daily living, which was seen and known of all men. Though of different religious sects-one being a Congregationalist, one a Bap- tist, and the other a Methodist-yet no discord was ever manifested between them, but a united effort was made by them to show men the way to better things by better living, and thus, finally, to reach the best of all, God and heaven. They were not only physicians for the soul's eure, but they sometimes ministered to the body's ailments. They married the living, and buried the dead ; they christened the babe, admonished the young and warned the old ; they cheered the despondent, rebuked the wilful and hurled the vengeance of eternal burnings at the desperately wicked. When other orators were scarce, they sometimes mounted the rostrum on the Fourth of July, and highfaluted for the edification of the people, like other patriotic mortals. Wherever they came they were welcome, and notice was soon sent around to the neighbors and a meeting was held. For years they could say literally, as did the Master before them : " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but (we) the sons of men have not where to lay our heads."
Father Clarke, in St. Charles, and Elder Ambrose, in Elgin, finally settled down and were located over respective congregations of their own faith, and Elder Kimball, the Methodist, in Bloomingdale. Father Clarke has gone to his rest, sincerely mourned by all who had ever known him.
The first church in the county was organized in Batavia, in 1835. It was of the Congregationalist faith, and another one of the same faith was organ- ized in Elgin, in 1836. The first Methodist Episcopal churches were organ- ized in Aurora and Elgin, in 1837. The Baptists organized a society in 1836, in St. Charles. The Unitarians organized a society in Geneva, in 1837, and about that time the Universalists organized one in St. Charles. The first Roman Catholic gathering was probably in Rutland, though Aurora elaims the first church up as late as 1848, or after. The first Congregational minister in the county was Father Clarke; the first Baptist, Elder Ambrose; the first Methodist, Rev. William Kimball; the first Unitarian, A. H. Conant, and the first Universalists, Andrew Pingree and William Rounseville. The first church
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