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 29
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A history of the quarries and their successive transfers from owner to owner to the present time would not interest the general reader. Hundreds of hands have found employment in them, and they have not only contributed to the prosperity of the place by bringing wealth from outside and furnishing employ- ment for its laborers, but by placing at convenient distances, and for a merely nominal sum, a material with which to build its schools, churches, manufactur- ing establishments, business blocks, many of its private residences and the side- walks of its principal streets, lasting as the eternal hills.
RAILROADS.
The O., 0: & F. R. V. Railroad and the C., B. & Q. are sufficiently noticed in the chapter upon Aurora. Each enter Batavia, and each have depots within the corporation limits. In 1873, the Chicago & Northwestern Road, wishing to use the Batavia stone for building its extensive shops in West Chicago, laid a track from Geneva to Batavia and opened a convenient and handsome depot there on the 5th of May. Many of the citizens, who had hitherto shipped their freight over the other roads, immediately commenced business with the Northwestern, and it now furnishes a thoroughfare for the transportation of more than half the freight that leaves the village. The entire business of the branch track amounts to $40,000 per annum ; that of the C., B. & Q., from Batavia, $19,000, and the Fox River Valley, about $7,200. Nine trains leave the Batavia depots daily.
The business of the Western Union Telegraph Company, at the C., B. & Q. depot, amounts to about $50.00 per month.
SCHOOL'S.
West Side .- The West Side School is situated in District No. 5, which ex- tends from the Aurora line across the line which separates Batavia from the town of Geneva. A building was erected near the present site, about 1852, at
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a cost of some $1,200; but as it became unsuitable to the requirements of the growing village, it was determined by the citizens to erect a structure which should be an honor to their enterprise and intelligence as long as time permitted it to stand. Accordingly, in 1867, the imposing pile, which is the first object to greet the eye on approaching the village, was commenced and completed in the following year, at a cost of $27,100. It contains four depart- ments, five teachers are employed, and 216 pupils receive instruction there. Present Principal, A. S. Barry.
East Side .- The East Side School, although less ambitious in its architec- ture, is a large structure of the same durable material, completed in 1860 at a cost of about nine thousand dollars. It is located in District No. 6. Six teachers are employed in its several departments, and 472 pupils are in attend- ance. O. T. Snow is the present Principal.
CHURCHES.
Congregational .- Mention has already been made of the early preaching of Rev. N. C. Clark, whose first sermon in Kane County was delivered in Au- gust, 1834, at the house of Christopher Payne. During the following year, the old records state that he again preached in an old school house on the east side of the river, within the limits of a farm now owned by Spencer Johnson ; and that on the 8th of August, 1835, the Congregational Church, known as " Big Woods Church," was first organized as a Presbyterian church, with fourteen members. This was the first organized religious denomination in Kane County. On the 29th of January, 1841, the first Presbyterian Church was dedi- cated in the village, and on the 11th of November, 1843, the change was made in name and form, and the church became Congregational. Later, members were dismissed to assist in the organization of churches at Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva and Aurora. In 1853, the old building was enlarged; and in 1856, the second house of worship was erected, at a cost of about thirteen thousand dol- lars, being at the time of its completion the best church edifice on Fox River. The old building was afterward purchased by the Catholics. The membership of the Congregational Church has been increased from the original fourteen to 200.
The Methodist Episcopal denomination was one of the very earliest to appear in Batavia, as in nearly every other new country. The building now oc- cupied by them was erected in 1852, and cost $4,000. Present membership, 177.
Baptist .- The Baptist Church, called at first the Regular Church of Christ, at Big Woods, was organized June 16, 1836. Its first members were Isaac Wilson and Susanna Wilson, his wife, Major Osborn and Sophia Osborn, his wife, Hiram Park, Malesson Haynes, Levi Ward, Fanny Wilson, Silas T. Ward, William E. Burt and Lydia Hurlburt. Elder R. B. Ashley was its first pastor. After the Congregationalists had built a church, the Baptists occupied it alternately with them for a number of years, but, in 1850, they built the house of worship which they still occupy. The present membership is 110.
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Episcopal .- Many years ago, an Episcopal Church was formed in Batavia, and, in process of time, a wooden building was put up; this occurred about twenty years ago, but the building, being poorly constructed, was blown down. The organization, however, still exists, and meetings are held in Buck's Hall, the Rector from Geneva, Rev. N. J. O'Brian, officiating. Present member- ship, sixty-eight.
Catholic .- The Catholics organized about 1855, and have since occupied the old Congregational Church. Several years ago, an effort was made to erect a new building, and the foundation was" laid on the East Side, but it remains unfinished to date.
The German Methodist Episcopal organization was formed in Batavia under the name of the German Evangelical Association of North America, about 1860, and their building erected in 1866, which they still occupy. It stands on the east side of the river, and is a small but well-built wooden edifice.
Colored Methodist Episcopal .- No sooner had the result of the late war decided the future destiny of the colored population in this country, than a number of that race flocked to Batavia and, in 1865, put up a small wooden church. Present membership, about twenty-five.
The Disciples organized in the village with eleven members, in December, 1852, and reorganized in February of the following year. M. W. Lord was the first preacher. In 1867, they had attained sufficient strength to build a church, and have continued steadily increasing.
Swedenborgian .- In the Fall of 1868, a Swedenborgian organization was formed in Buck's Hall, under the leadership of H. O. Snow. There were but fifteen members at first, but their numbers have increased slowly, and at present the membership is about twenty-three. In the Fall of 1874, they purchased a lot on the West Side and made preparations to build, but the financial crisis occurring about the same time, and several of the members suffering thereby, the project was postponed and the lot sold. The society still meets regularly in the original place of worship.
The Free Will Baptists undertook to form a permanent society in the place a few years ago, but, being few and weak in numbers, never attempted to build, and at length discontinued preaching.
Swedish Methodist Episcopal .- In September, 1870, Rev. August Wei- gren preached to a small Swedish congregation in the village. In the follow- ing year, a church having been organized, efforts were made to build, the result of which was the little brown wood church on the West Side, completed in 1872. There are now about thirty-six members.
Independent Swedish Evangelical Lutheran .- Four members of this branch of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Batavia, used to meet in pri- vate houses for worship in 1870. There were no other members of that organi- zation in the place, but others came, and in 1872, they rented Fowler's Hall, and in 1876, built a small wood church on the West Side. Rev. I. N. San-
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gren was their first preacher. The organization is still small, numbering not more than sixteen members.
Swedish Lutheran .- Fifty-two members were dismissed, in 1872, from the Swedish Lutheran Church, in Geneva, to organize a church in Batavia. The old stone school house was purchased and converted into a very comfortable house of worship, in which Rev. Mr. Lyndale, the resident Pastor in Geneva, preached once in two weeks. The members steadily increased, and at the present time the membership is one hundred, enjoying regular preaching weekly from a resident Pastor, Rev. Mr. Ternstadt.
In the Spring of 1835, a Union Sabbath School, the first in the county, was organized in Batavia.
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
About ten years ago, a society, formed by the young people of the village for literary purposes, commenced a library. The use of the volumes was lim- ited to members of the organization, and outsiders were not allowed to remove them from the shelves. Several of the intelligent business men feeling the need of a collection of books to which all should have free access, the society was induced to contribute its collection to that purpose, and with liberal subscrip- tions in money from many of the citizens, 700 volumes were obtained. This number has been increased, by general subscriptions, to 1,000. The rules of the association are exceedingly liberal. Any one-a resident of the village or a stranger-above fourteen years of age, is allowed to remove a volume at a time and retain it for two weeks. It contains many valuable works of romance and books of reference, history and biography. Its officers are John Van Nort- wick, President; J. O. Mc Clellan, Vice President; Wm. Burnham, Treasurer ; F. H. Buck, Librarian. It is supported by subscription, some of the citizens contributing largely for its increase and support. Its President has given $100 annually since its organization.
BELLEVUE HOSPITAL.
E. S. and Dr. D. K. Town were, from the commencement of the village, among the most enterprising in the promotion of every object which was projected for its prosperity, and accordingly, in 1853-4, they built, with the assistance of others, prominent among whom were John Van Nortwick, Joel McKee and Rev. Stephen Peet, an institution of learning, on the West Side, which enjoyed, for about ten years, a high reputation. The adoption of the school law rendered the continuation of the school less essential to the welfare of Batavia, and the building was, therefore, sold and fitted for a private asylum for the insane It is built of cut stone; cost, originally, some $20,000. and $10,000 have since been expended upon it. It commands a beau- tiful view, and is thus appropriately named. The grounds connected with the building are under excellent cultivation, and the green-houses cover an area of
HON IRA MINARD (DECEASED) ST CHARLES.
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10,000 square feet. No serious accident has occurred since the hospital was opened. It is under the medical care of Dr. R. J. Patterson, formerly Med- ical Superintendent of the Indiana State Hospital for the Insane, late Medical Superintendent of the Iowa State Hospital for the Insane, and formerly Pro- fessor of Medical Jurisprudence in the Chicago Medical College.
The institution is arranged with special reference to the treatment of patients who possess means to defray their expenses, and one of the main ob- jects sought is to give the entire establishment the character of a home, and not a prison. Hence the insane and useless restraints which are often thrown around the unfortunate patient in other hospitals are here removed, together with everything revolting to the senses, while luxury and elegance abound on all sides. " Who enters here bids hope farewell" needs not to be engraved above its doors, as upon a majority of the so-called asylums, and the patient who cannot recover under the kind treatment of its genial owner and Superin- tendent may be said to be indeed incurable.
THE PRESS.
About 1852, a Democratic campaign paper, called the Expositor, was started in Batavia, by James Risk and others, but, before becoming firmly established, it died a natural death. Subsequently, a second attempt, by other parties, to establish a paper proved equally futile ; but, in 1869, Messrs. Roof & Lewis issued the first copy of the Batavia News, which has been published . ever since. In May, 1870, Mr. O. B. Merrill purchased Roof's interest, and, in October of the same year, was bought out by Mr. Lewis, its present editor and proprietor. It claims to be independent in politics, is a six-column quarto, 30x44, and is printed on a steam power press. Circulation, 480. The Fox River Times was issued by Roof, Gates & Fox, in the Summer of 1876, and was an eight-column folio, surpassing, in the neatness of its typography, every other paper on Fox River. It died in less than three months.
INCORPORATION.
Batavia was incorporated as a village in April, 1856. Its first Trustees were John Van Nortwick, Orsamus Wilson, M. N. Lord, D. U. Griffin and George E. Corwin. Few villages possess greater advantages, natural or artificial. Aside from those which have been mentioned are its excellent water power and its favorable distance from the great city of Chicago, while it already contains the common protections and social organizations of large cities -- a fire company, cornet band, Masonic Lodge, and various other associations.
GENEVA TOWNSHIP.
Geneva occupies the northern part of Town 39, North Range 8 East of the Third Principal Meridian, and contains Geneva village, the county seat. The township is north of Batavia and south of St. Charles ; is crossed from east to
F
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west by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, along the west side of Fox River by the Fox River Valley Road and the St. Charles branch of the Chicago & Northwestern.
SETTLEMENT.
Settlements were made along the river banks a year, at least, before those in the country east and west, the first being within the present corporation limits, and mentioned in the sketch of Geneva village. Fox River was no chain of stagnant mill ponds then, but clear as a New England brook meander- ing from its home in the mountains. Its banks were not less beautiful than now, though that beauty was of a milder type. Forests covered the rolling table lands, which were too low to be called hills by the eastern explorer, and too rugged to be designated as prairies by the Western pioneer. The deer still rambled along its slopes, and were hunted by men as wild as they ; and all nature strove to present a combination of varied objects picturesque as fancy can portray, and charming even to the eyes of the settlers who had wandered there from the hills and valleys of the Quaker State, unsurpassed in their majesty and romantic beauty. The living sources of information concerning the settlement of this township can give no record of its events in which they ยท participated previous to April, and but a limited one previous to June, 1834. All prior events are obtained from what was told them when they came by settlers then in the country, and from exceedingly limited and often unreliable written accounts. Such men as Haight, Crow, Corey and Andrew Miles were not literary in their habits. They never questioned whether the "pen was mightier" than anything or not, nor dreamed that they were making history. And had they foreseen the future they would no doubt have contented themselves with forming its past without recording it. A drink of whisky or a fight had more charms to them than the perpetuation of their memory by posterity, and had their immortality depended upon themselves, their names would have been stricken from the county records in 1837. They were a brave, a hardy, an honest class of men, and their vices were such as were common to the border, and which civilization would have removed and replaced, possibly. by more degrading ones. They drank to excess, they fought like Bengal tigers, but always in what they considered a fair way, and deceit or fraud were utterly foreign to their natures. Their word was more binding to them than any written obligation, and countless thousands could be safely trusted in their hands. They were honest men-" the noblest works of God." Haight's. record will appear in the sketch of Geneva village. Of Crow little is known, except that he took up a claim on the east side of the river in 1833, or early in 1834, sold early, and had left the township in the Spring of 1835. Samuel Corey, one of the stalwart Hoosiers from the Wabash, lived on the place now owned by George Acers, on the north edge of Batavia, in June, 1834, wherehe had been living for several months at least Capt. C. B. Dodson states that he often
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transacted business for him, and that he had trusted him with large sums of gold, and had found him always reliable and trustworthy, but apparently as careless as he was honest. He would ride off over the country with two or three thousand dollars in his saddle-bags, and stopping at one of the rude Hoosier houses would hang up his saddle, wealth and all, out doors for the night. On being cautioned against such a reckless course, he claimed that none would steal traps that the owner appeared to consider worthless. An accident illustrative of his reckless character occurred to him in 1834, and nearly ended his life. One day Capt. Dodson appeared in his presence ready for a journey. "Where are you going ?" said Corey ; to which Dodson replied, " To the first wedding in the country, that of Volney Hill," who lived in Du Page County. Corey answered him with an oath that he was going too, as he had a pair of steelyards that he had borrowed of Capt. Naper, and which he must return ; "and, by G-," he added, "I'll give you the worst race you were ever led." Dodson informed him that he would be happy to have him undertake it, and mounting their horses they started off at a desperate speed. But Corey, hampered with the steelyards, was soon brought up against a tree, knocked senseless from his horse, and lay like one dead upon the ground. On being restored, his first word was an oath, and an assurance that he would go to the wedding anyhow ; but he was more seriously injured than he at first supposed, was confined to his bed for several days, and wisely refrained in the future from horse races when trammeled with anything more than his own weight. Miles, who is repre- sented by our worthy informant as a good-natured, lazy and ignorant native of Indiana, had taken up a claim upon the East Side, and was living in a miser- able shanty, upon Capt. Dodson's arrival, but was bought out by him previous to 1835. He was one of the earliest settlers in the county, and was doubtless upon his claim late in 1833. But the earliest living informant regarding this region is Mrs. C. B. Dodson, then Miss Warren, who was one of a party of six from near Warrenville, Du Page County, who explored Geneva in a lumber wagon in April, 1834. The party was induced to make the journey from the representations of Frederick Bird, her brother-in-law, who had previously been along the banks of Fox River, and described Geneva as " the most beauti- ful country that lay out doors." He settled in the same year on the farm now owned by Eben Danford, and was residing there in April, 1835, but about that time sold his claim to Samuel Sterling, removed to the vicinity of Rockford, where he subsequently died. He was a native of New York. Capt. Dodson states that upon his settlement at the mouth of Mill Creek, in June, 1834, Wheeler was living upon the Curtis farm, and he represents him as very similar in character to Andrew Miles, and a native of the same State. According to Hon. James Herrington, the Curtis place was occupied in the Spring of 1835 by Allen Ware, a bachelor from Virginia, who is portrayed by him as in rather better circumstances than his neighbors, living in a comfortable cabin, with a barn -good for those days-near by, and an orchard of young apple trees near his
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door. Just below this place, in June, 1834, lived another Hoosier, Arthur Aken, but his claim was sold early, and he continued with so many of his class to break land for others to cultivate. Ware also left before the country had emerged from its original wild state. Capt. Dodson further states that Edward Trimble, from the Pan Handle part of the Old Dominion, was living on the East Side, upon the farm now owned by Mrs. Sterling, when he arrived in the country, and that during the same year (1834) his marriage to a daughter of Christopher Payne occurred at the house of the bride's father, where he (Dodson) had the pleasure of dancing at the wedding, on the puncheon floor. Every township claims the first death, marriage and birth in the county, but our informant assures us that this is without doubt the first of the numerous first weddings. Trimble left the country in 1836, and was subsequently killed by Indians in the far West. His brother, William Trimble, settled in the village. The same reliable informant tells us that one Latham settled between Payne and Miles in Batavia, early in 1834, and that late in 1833, James Nelson. the settler in honor of whom Nelson's Grove was named, had built a cabin there, and that the Bowmans and Lairds, from Pennsylvania, had squatted among the Pottawattomies, in Aurora Township, in the same year.
These earliest settlers were, as has been seen, mainly from Indiana. Sev- eral of them were in the country in 1833, and of these it may now be consid- ered impossible to state which was first. From a statement made by Payne to 'Squire E. S. Town and others, Haight is generally considered to have pre- ceded the others ; but, in regard to the priority of time of several of the earliest of those in the present township of Geneva, nothing positive can be stated. They were a simple and generous people, honest themselves, as has been stated, and, as is often the case among such people, believing in the honesty of every one. An illustration of this faith in others is given by the authority who has already been so frequently quoted. Col. Archer, of Indiana, formerly from Kentucky, was a great man in 1836, for he held the high position of an Illinois & Michigan Canal Commissioner, compared with which the Governor of one of the Western States was as a mole hill to the Pharos of Alexandria ; but this potentate was a Hoosier. He was a gentleman, however, possessed of a nature which won the friendship both of the low and mighty ; was possessed of an ample fortune, and an only daughter, whose name was Eliza, whose chief delight was to squander it. This girl was, in many respects, unique among her sex, not in being spoiled by her parents, but in the possession of a stature almost gigantic, a foot which would rival in magnitude a plantation negro's, and a disposition to which fear was utterly unknown. With all these shocking de- formities, Eliza Archer possessed the feminine characteristics of a handsome face and form. Previous to her importation to Chicago, where she was attend- ing school, at the time this incident commences, she had whiled away her leisure hours by riding wild colts, barebacked and unbridled, over the southern fields, and in frightening her unhappy father in various other ways, too shock-
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ing to the modern belle to be here narrated. At school, she did precisely as she pleased-lavished money in reckless profusion upon her person, neglected her studies, took off her shoes and stockings in recitation, appeared barefooted in the school room, and was generally decidedly independent. Still, Miss Archer was a good young lady, and the above are merely slight eccentricities which her friends readily forgave.
Capt. Dodson took a contract, during the year, 1836, to construct the canal, and became acquainted with Col. Archer. At that time, Dodson owned, aside from his Clybournville and Geneva property, a mill on the Kishwaukee, which he wished to dispose of previous to signing the contract. Accordingly, he stated to the Colonel that he would like to wait a few days before concluding their arrangements regarding the canal, and told him that he was going on a . journey Westward the next morning. "How far are you going ?" said Col. Archer." To Rock River." "Do you know my daughter, Eliza ?" Dodson, who had met her while visiting his future wife, who attended the same school, replied that he did. " Well, then," said Archer, " she is going to Rock River, too ; can't you take her ?" Dodson said he was going horseback. "Just the way she goes," said the Cononel. A party of Chicago's "upper ten " had determined to leave the town the next day on an exploring trip across the prairie, and Capt. Dodson was anxious to accompany them as far as their paths lay in the same direction. The prospect of being delayed by Miss Archer was not at all agreeable, but, rather than displease the genial Colonel, he consented. While eating dinner on the next day, the party passed, and, soon after, Capt. Dodson followed with the lady, who had filled her saddle-bags with provisions for the journey, and hurried on to overtake the advanced company, whom they came up with just in the edge of town. Miss Archer's shoe was down at the heel, as usual, as they approached, and hovered over the surface of the earth like a gigantic snow-shoe or a small canoe suspended in the upper air from her toe. Col. Hamilton, one of the party, noticing its peculiar appearance, she explained by saying that those shoes were "old Whitlock's," her land- lord's, and that she had given him hers, as his own were too small for him.
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