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 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
"The bright waters of that upper sphere,"
while the tangled shrubs with which the margin of the island was covered, the stately and grand forests of oak which rose gloomily along the eastern bank, all contributed to form a delightful picture to the eye of the eastern voyageurs, accustomed from their earliest remembrances to such scenes, but wearied for weeks with gazing over the trackless and uninterrupted prairies, which stretch away across the country which they had just traversed. The natural fall, too, and the island partially obstructing the channel, formed the advantages which they had sought so long, and McCarty immediately laid claim to about 360 acres on the east side, and proceeded to make good his title by erecting thereon a log cabin about 10x12 feet in dimensions ; and later, in order to enjoy the entire right to the water power, he took up another claim of about 100 acres on the opposite side of the river, on which he built a similar shanty. The log house on the east side was the first dwelling within the limits of the city, and was located about seventy-five feet directly east of the spot where the old grist- mill stands. The nearest white settler at that time was Elijah Pierce, who lived three miles down the river with his family, at the place now occupied by the village of Montgomery. The nearest neighbor on the east was not less than ten miles away. Naperville contained a few families, and there was a family living on Rock Creek, about twelve miles west of the Indian village ; while still another, arriving about the same time as McCarty and Beardslee, put up a shanty in the vicinity of Batavia. The Indians displayed consider- able curiosity in the proceedings of their white neighbors, and frequently visited them, begging bread, tobacco and whisky. They were friendly, and at the time of Black Hawk's raid, two years previous, Waubansie had warned the scattered settlers of the impending danger, thus meriting, if he did not receive, their eternal gratitude. During the Summer of 1834, McCarty and his men occupied the shanty upon the east side, doing their own cooking, with the exception of their bread, which was prepared by Mrs. Pierce, down the river, and carried home in flour sacks. In the meantime, a dam had been commenced and
278
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
was steadily progressing, and the timbers for a saw-mill having been prepared, the neighbors within a radius of fifteen miles were invited to the raising. It is said that about a dozen men came. In October, a more convenient house was commenced, and the first settlers were thinking of making a gigantic stride in the direction of an advanced civilization, by inhabiting a dwelling 14x18, when their numbers were augmented by the arrival of Samuel McCarty, a younger brother of the one who then owned Aurora. Some weeks previous, Joseph McCarty had sent him a glowing account of the wilderness where he had pitched his tent, and he had immediately settled his business as a millwright, in Chemung County, and, taking the most direct route for Illinois, had arrived at Waubansie's reservation on the 6th of November, 1834, three weeks from the day of his departure from home, having journeyed a part of the distance in the same stage with the late Ira Minard, one of the pioneers of St. Charles. Previous to his arrival, his brother had purchased for him, of a squatter, a claim of 400 acres south of his own, for which he paid the sum of $60. Of this squatter we can obtain no satisfactory information, no reference to him occurring in the early records of these times, save in this connection only, and he was doubtless one of those wandering characters who appear in all new countries, but who vanish like the native animals before the advance of civil- ization, and his biography has no connection with the rise and progress of Aurora. In the following December, as the pioneers were sadly in need of a hostess, Stephen A. Aldrich and family* were received into their dwelling, Mrs. A. being the first white woman known to have trodden the pathless wilds of Aurora. The city then contained eight inhabitants, viz. : the two McCartys, Beardslee, Faracre, Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich, and two small children.
During the same month and year, R. C. Horr, who had previously emi- grated, with his family, from Canada to a point further south, came to the res- ervation with the intention of removing his household goods thither if the pros- pect appeared favorable. Finding the place all that he had anticipated, he bought of the McCartys the first acre of land sold by them, which was situated where some of the principal business houses in the city have since arisen, and paid for it the sum of $2.00, agreeing, also, to build thereon a dwelling and a tannery, the former of which was subsequently erected; but Mr. Horr, meet- ing with reverses in business, failed to fulfill the stipulation in regard to the latter. He removed his family in the Spring of 1835, and became a useful member of the growing settlement, being elected the first Justice of the Peace.
As the Aldriches remained but a short time in Aurora, Horr may be consid- ered the first permanent settler after the McCartys.
Under the successive blows and joint exertions of all the male members of the settlement, the mill and dam were soon completed. An old mill-book, now in the possession of Samuel McCarty, shows that the first sawing was done for Mr. Wormley, of Oswego, Ill., on the 8th day of June, 1835.
* They afterward removed to Sangamon County, Illinois.
279
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
In the same year, a tide of emigration from the East reached Fox River, and gave the first promise of prosperity to the little settlement then known as McCarty's Mill.
We notice upon the old mill-book, referred to above, the names of R. C. Horr, James Leonard, Levi and George Gorton, B. F. Phillips, the first cabi- net maker in the place, Joseph and Lyndorf Huntoon, Winslow Higgins, Will- iam Brown and Mr. Barker; beside whom we may mention Dr. Eastman, the first settled physician, and wife, R. M. Watkins and wife, Seth Read, Theodore Lake, Charles Bates, Elgin Squires, William T. Elliott, Peter Mills, E. D. Terry, Richard Terry and many others, in the years immediately following, if our space would permit.
The Higginses, who arrived in August, 1835, and settled on the east side of the river, and the Huntoons, who came immediately after, were the earliest of these. They came direct from Naperville, Canada, and were connected by marriage, Mrs. Higgins being a daughter of Joseph Huntoon and a sister of Lyndorf. They brought three horses, two cows and a yoke of oxen with them, and at once set about constructing a frame house, which was completed during the year, and was the first dwelling of the kind erected in the place. It stood on the present site of E. R. Allen's warehouse, was an exclusively home-made structure, Mr Higgins having manufactured the shingles from red oak, the ma- terial which formed the entire building, and was about 16x20 feet in dimen- sions, two small wings being subsequently attached. It has since been removed to North Broadway, opposite the round-house, where it still remains. About the same time, a frame building was finished by Samuel McCarty, which is still in existence, having been somewhat reconstructed.
It is difficult for us now, with the conveniences and luxuries of the metrop- olis at our doors, to realize the many privations which the pioneers were often obliged to undergo at that comparatively recent date. They had to go to Otta- wa or Chicago for all their supplies. The nearest grist-mill was forty. miles down the river, at a place then called Green's Mill, now Dayton. The coun- try swarmed with Indians, who stole their horses, and with wolves, who confis- cated the smaller domestic animals ; the settlers often knew by experience the meaning of hunger, and they shook with the ague from December to June.
Shortly after the arrival of the Higginses and Huntoons, they found them- selves one morning without horses, while the fresh tracks indicated that they had been taken in the direction of Chicago. There was one remaining steed in the place, which Mr Huntoon mounted, and hurried away on the trail of the thieves. They were easily followed from the tracks, as none of the Indian ponies were shod, while those which they had stolen left deep impressions in the soft sod at nearly every step. Mr. Huntoon pursued them to the Indian encampment, within sight of the agency, but there lost track of them. He then applied to the Indian agent, describing the property, which was recovered after a thorough search.
280
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
Complaint was made to the Chief in command, who proposed that his dis- honest subjects should be rigidly punished ; but upon a reconsideration of the circumstances, both the agent and Mr. Huntoon concluded that, since the Indi- ans were so vastly superior to the settlers in numbers that they could have an- nihilated them if their resentment was aroused, it was deemed prudent to allow the thieves to depart, after a sharp reprimand.
But few difficulties of this kind occurred, however, as the Pottawattomies left the country during the following Fall ; and Mr. Burr Winton, who is now living in Aurora, at the age of 76, and who came to the place October 9, 1836, states that the last Indian had gone when he arrived.
But some of the other embarrassments due to their isolated position, and the diseases peculiar to all of the Western country at the time of its first set- tlement, were not to be overcome with as much ease. The ague afflicted all alike, and Dr. George Higgins, now a practicing physician in Aurora, a son of the early settler, and who was only a small boy when he accompanied him from Canada, gives some doleful accounts of his father's sufferings with the disease which reduces its victim to a skeleton, but, according to popular belief, never kills.
A Miss Squires, who lay sick with the ague, in the lower room of Mr. Mc- Carty's house, while the workmen were shingling it, stated, in good faith, that she shook so severely that they were frightened from the roof. The two Huntoon families and the Higginses-eleven in all-occupied one and the same dwelling for a time after their arrival, and the doctor states that on one occasion, during their first year in the new country, their grain which had been carried to Green's mill failed to return as soon as they had expected it, and the last article of food in the house was devoured. In this strait, the grandmother, whom he represents as one of the keen, scheming Yankee women who never failed to suggest an invention adapted to the demands of any emergency, sifted a small quantity of bran, mixed it with water (the cows were dry), and cooked a cake, which he says was the most delicious morsel that he ever tasted. This process was repeated three times, and she was finally reduced to the necessity of mixing and baking the portion of the bran which would not go through the seive, be- fore the grist arrived. But famine never stalked into the settlement after the first year's crop was harvested, and the stories told of the fertility of that virgin soil are almost incredible. In 1836, Mr. Higgins hired an acre of land of the McCartys, upon which he planted potatoes, agreeing to take three- fourths of the crop as his share. His share was 300 bushels. Benjamin Hackney, who arrived in the settlement several years later, raised forty-two bushels of winter wheat to the acre, weighing about sixty-two pounds to the bushel, which was the eleventh crop on the same land.
After 1835, settlers flocked into the place by scores, and from that date its destiny was manifest. In this year, the original plat of the city was laid out, the survey of which must have occurred late in the Fall, as Mr. Samuel Mc-
281
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
Carty, who superintended it, and who is still an honored resident of the city, states that the ground was frozen to such an extent that some difficulty was ex- perienced in driving the stakes. The village, as first laid out, extended from Flag street, on the north, to Benton, on the south, and some six blocks back from the river.
It was in this year, also, that the first public religious services were held in the settlement, the first sermon being delivered by a Congregational clergyman from Ottawa, in Mr. Horr's house. Rev. Mr. Springer, of the Methodist Church, followed close in his track and preached occasionally during the Fall and Winter of 1836-7. The year 1835 is likewise memorable as the one in which death first appeared in the village. A Miss Elmira Graves, an invalid, brought from the East by her friends, with the hope that a change of climate would effect a cure, died late in the Fall, and was buried near the corner of Benton and La Salle streets, a point then believed to be beyond the possible limits of the city, but now nearly in the heart of it.
In the same year, the water power, with the McCarty claim on the West Side, was sold for $500, to Z. Lake. Two saw-mills were subsequently built upon it, the last of which stood upon the site now occupied by the ruins of the Black Hawk Mills. The rapid increase in the population from the arrival of immigrants during the Fall of 1835, and the Spring and Summer of 1836, made it apparent to the least enterprising that some immediate steps should be taken toward supplying the want ef a grist-mill. Hauling grain forty miles was an item of labor which could ill be afforded by men dependent upon their daily toil, and, accordingly, in 1836, the McCarty brothers commenced, and afterward, having formed a partnership with Robert Miller, finished the long- wished-for institution during the following year, the first grist being ground in it February 8, 1837.
Previous to this date, Aurora had had a school. Her first settlers had come from a portion of the country proverbial for the dissemination of knowledge among its inhabitants, and where the school teacher was considered as essential a factor in the body politic as the farmer or the mechanic. Ac- cordingly, it has been a matter of some controversy to determine when the first school was started, and it seems to be admitted on all hands that it is difficult to point to a time, after the first boy or girl appeared in the town, when there was not one.
According to Mr. Burr Winton, a man by the name of Livings, from Syracuse, N. Y., appeared in the settlement, early in the Winter of 1836, and told the set- tlers that they ought to have a school. This axiom was readily received, "but," said they, "we have no house." A small slab shanty stood near the river, on the East Side, and Mr. Livings, pointing to it, said that it might well be turned into an alphabet dispensary, and that he would willingly teach there, for three months, if the settlers would assure him twenty-five pupils, at $1.50 each. A subscription paper was circulated and the required sum pledged, but, on
282
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
opening the school, only fourteen children appeared, the entire juvenile force of the village. The school, however, progressed for several weeks, but the measles breaking out among the pupils, it was closed before the three months had expired. The pedagogue betook himself from Aurora to Chicago, where he was subsequently found dead in a hay loft, having committed suicide.
Two rude houses were subsequently erected, one on the East and the other on the West Side, in the former of which a Miss Julia Brown taught the first term, and has frequently been incorrectly cited as the first teacher in the place. Men were generally employed as teachers in the Winter, and women in the Summer, and, for a number of years, rude huts, built for the purpose, or rooms in private dwellings, were used as school rooms. The teachers were generally paid by subscription, the present elaborate school law being then unknown. Three Directors were appointed, in Aurora, at an early day, and Burr Winton, one of the first board, says that he was obliged to pay a teacher for one quarter, amounting to about twenty-eight dollars, from his own private purse.
The old State Line Road between Chicago and Galena crossed Fox River, previous to 1836, at Gray's (now Montgomery), and there was no road between Naperville and Aurora. The mail for McCarty's Mill, as Aurora was then called, was obtained at Naperville.
In the above mentioned year, however, Samuel McCarty and some of his men staked a road to that place; also west to Big Rock, and erected rude bridges where they were needed. Mr. McCarty then consulted with the mail- contractor, offering to board his drivers and teams a month, gratis, if he would take the new route. The offer was accepted, and Mr. Winton, who was then living in Mr. McCarty's house, relieved him of part of his agreement, and boarded the drivers during the month himself.
It was then proposed to have a post office, and at the suggestion of Mr. Win- ton, a meeting (November, 1836) of the citizens was called to take action in re- gard to it. Mr. R. C. Horr was chosen Chairman, and, the assembly declaring themselves in favor of Mr. Winton as their Postmaster, a petition' was drawn up, and, with their signatures appended, together with that of the nearest Post- master, according to a common custom, and presented to the proper authorities ; and in March, 1837, Mr. Winton entered upon the duties of the office, which he held for ten years, with honor, at the expiration of which time he resigned.
It would be natural to suppose that the institution which the pioneers had sought for so long would have received liberal patronage, and that an extra mail- bag might have been required to carry the messages which would pour hourly into its letter-boxes, but such was not the fact, and Mr. Winton states that he be- lieves that the amount due the Department, from the office, during the first quarter, did not exceed $10.00. It must be recollected, too, that it cost twenty- five cents to send a letter then.
Some difficulty arose in deciding upon a name for the office, a part of the in- habitants being in favor of perpetuating the memory of the friendly old Chief
283
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
of the Pottawattomies, by calling it Waubansie, and various other proposals were made, but Mr. E. D. Terry having suggested Aurora, Homer's " rosy- fingered" goddess received the honor, and the village as cuphonious and classic a name as could have been conferred upon it.
In the Fall of 1836, a hotel, 16x31, was put up on the present site of the Tremont House, by E. D. & Richard Terry .*
Up to this time, plastered walls were unknown in the place, but as it was the general belief that some approach to metropolitan elegance should be attempted in the new building, the limestone with which the river banks abounded were collected in sufficient quantities and burned in a log fire. When this difficulty in obtaining lime was thus overcome, another appeared in the fact that there was neither a plasterer nor trowel nearer than Chicago. There was a black- smith, however, in the person of Mr. King, on the West Side-a true son of Vulcan-who could make anything which taxed the ingenuity of the heathen patron of his art, except a thunderbolt ; and, an old saw being presented to him, a trowel speedily appeared therefrom, with which Richard Terry plastered the walls.
At a period a little later, James Leonard put up a building on the West Side, on River street, which was used as a hotel, but in those days every man who had ten square feet of spare room, kept tavern.
In the Fall of 1836, a bridge was built across the east channel of the river, by voluntary subscription, but being a light wood structure it was swept away, by a freshet in the following Spring.
In the Spring of 1838, a subscription paper was circulated to obtain funds to rebuild the bridge. This document is still in existence, and stipulated that the amount subscribed should be paid in four separate payments, the first to be made on the first of April, the second on the first of June, the third in July, and the fourth in August. It cost about $2,000. The McCartys headed the list with $500. This bridge was in turn swept away, and was again rebuilt across the east channel in 1843 (by subscription list).
Aurora was now on the highway to prosperity, with taverns, stores, shops, a post office, schools, stage route, and everything which betokens the thriving village, when the financial storm of 1837 swept over the country. All North- ern Illinois was flooded with worthless Michigan securities, and many of the inhabitants of the coming city suffered in common with settlers in all parts of the State, but they eventually arose above the tempest.
The progress of Aurora was at no time stayed, the tide of immigration con- tinuing as before and valuable additions were received this same year to the population, among which we may mention J. G. Stolp, who came from Onon- daga Co., N. Y., in the Spring ; Geo. McCullum, Robert Mathews and his fam- ily, Isaac Marlett, Wm. V. Plum, Clark Wilder, Messrs. Sawtall, Wallace and Campbell.
* Now living in another county.
-
284
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
Various important topics seem to have agitated the village during the year, prominent among which was the temperance question. A society was organ- ized early in the Winter, with E. D. Terry as President, and Perseus Brown, also known as "Dr." and "Cooper " Brown, as Secretary, and Dr. O. D. Howell (then a school teacher), acting under its direction, delivered the first temperance lecture in the town. Spirituous liquor was then as common an article of trade as cut nails or calico prints, and the society did not pretend to inculcate total abstinence among its members, but simply the temperate use of alcoholic drinks. But there was one in the society, Mr. Brown, the worthy Secretary, who was as radical in his denunciation of drink and the drunkard as are any of our modern teetotalers. He would neither use the beverage him- self nor in any possible way, however remote, would he assist any one to use it. If a man brought him a barrel to repair, he had been known to ask for what purpose he wished to use it, and if he replied " to hold whisky," some other cooper than " Cooper " Brown must mend it. This eccentric but conscientious man was drowned some years later, by accident, in Fox River.
The year 1837 also witnessed the building of a carding mill on the upper end of the island, by J. G. Stolp, which was subsequently moved to a point further down the river, where the business developed into its present propor- tions, Stolp's Woolen Mills being now known throughout the West.
In 1838, Mr. Winton suggested the feasibility of purchasing a Town Library ; and, as the suggestion was favorably received, an association was formed for that purpose, each member paying $2.00 for a share. One hundred dollars were thus raised and expended in the purchase of popular and instruc- tive works, Harpers' Family Library forming an important part of them. Although the interest in the library diminished to a considerable extent, at one time, it has never been allowed to perish, and during the last fifteen years has been increased by successive additions, until at the present time it contains up- ward of two thousand volumes, embracing all the various departments of litera- ture and science, standard works upon history and philosophy, complete sets of the books of all the best writers of romance and books of reference, many of of which are to be found in no private library in the city. A great advance was made in its history in the fall of 1864,* when a number of the most influ- ential and intelligent men in the city conceived the plan of establishing a read- ing room in connection with it. Previously, the few books which had been collected had been generally kept in the private house of the Librarian, and had often become scattered and many of them lost ; but since the date above named, the library has steadily increased.
CHURCHES.
In the Fall of 1837, the first church in the place was organized under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal Conference. Rev. Worthington Wilcox was its first pastor, and the first meeting of the society was held at the house
* In that year it was chartered.
285
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
of Samuel McCarty. Its first church edifice was erected in 1843, the mem- bership at that time having increased from seven or eight to between thirty and forty. The names of the first Board of Trustees were Samuel McCarty, C. H. Goodwin, Mr. Brown, C. F. Goodwin and John Gilson. The present imposing stone edifice was commenced in 1871 and dedicated December 27th, 1874. It cost about $50,000, and will seat 1,200. Before the Methodists had commenced their first building, the Universalists had established a society, August 8, 1842, and in the same year had built a church. Its first pastor was Rev. G. W. Lawrence. Their elegant stone building now standing, on the East Side, at the corner of Main street and Lincoln avenue, was erected in 1866. If the moral status of a city is to be measured by the number of its churches, Aurora will rank high among her sister cities, for no less than nineteen buildings dedicated to the worship of God now rise in her midst. The first Baptist organization commenced its existence March 29, 1844. It was established about two miles from the city, in a little school house in Mr. Vaughn's neighborhood. There were at first only ten members, and Rev. J. Blake officiated as pastor. About 1847, they decided to hold their services in the village, and in 1851 commenced to build a church, which was completed in the following year, and is still occu- pied by them. Catholic priests from Elgin and Chicago were in the habit of visiting the few members of their church who had settled in Aurora, as early as 1848. They frequently held meetings in school houses or in private dwellings, but it was not until 1849 or 1850 that Bishop Vandeveld purchased of Austin Mann nineteen acres of land for church purposes. This property was situated on Broadway, and is now a part of the tract occupied by the tracks and build- ings of the C., B. & Q. Railroad. A church was erected on this tract about 30x40, and, after standing there about a year, was blown down. Father La Bell was the pastor. It was afterward raised again and occupied a short time, but Messrs. Hall having donated to the church two lots, located on the corner of Pine and Spruce streets, and two more lots having been purchased, a stone building, 102 feet in length by 42 in width, was erected in 1855-6. This edifice remained a number of years ; a pleasant parsonage was built near it, and the society was becoming independent, when it took fire and burned down. A Cathedral was then built on Fox street, which is still occupied. The Ger- man Catholics met for a time with their English-speaking brethren, but in 1859 they resolved to erect a separate building, where they might hold worship in the language of " vaterland." Accordingly, two lots were purchased, where the church and parsonage now stand, the former being built during the year 1860. . It is about 50x100 feet. Rev. Father Westkamp was the first pastor. The membership of each of these Catholic Churches is very large. The French Catholics built a church about eight years ago, and are still occupying it.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.