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 30
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Col. Hamilton informed them that the best road to their destination was by way of the old army trail, across Kane County, and soon after, the company separated, the two who were bound for Rock River taking the course desig- nated. At night, they drew up at Kent's House, at Mecham's Grove, where the young lady amused the company with her wit and passed for Dodson's wife, until bedtime dispelled the illusion.
Arriving, the next day at noon, at the cabin of a Mr. Gifford, many miles west of their lodging place of the previous night, the stubborn damsel refused all entreaties to stop and take dinner, and, hurrying her horse past the place to a grove a mile or more away, dismounted from her horse, "Packenham," and, having secured him, proceeded to unburden the saddle-bags and eat.
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Capt. Dodson followed her example. Then mounting their horses, Miss Eliza held hers long enough to observe that she was dying with thirst, and then
"-loosed him with a sudden lash : Away ! away ! and on they dash, Torrents less rapid and less rash. Town, village-none were on their track, But a wild plain of far extent, And bounded by a forest black."
They rode till their thirst was insupportable, their tongues swollen and they ready to drop from their steeds, when, turning his eye to the left, Capt. Dodson noticed a little lake almost hidden in the trees, which they had approached and nearly passed. Wheeling his horse, he reeled to the bank and drank as if whole waves could never satisfy him. His rash friend, too, with even less than her usual modesty, stretched herself at full length, drowned her thirst, and then declared that Packenham should go into the water and get cool. But our informant had noticed that the shore was formed of a thin muck, which sunk beneath the slightest pressure, and told her, in decided terms, that she must not attempt to ride in, as the horse could not possibly turn without falling. This was enough to determine her to ride in, if all Illinois opposed her, and in she went, for, on attempting to regain the shore, Dodson's words were verified ; the horse went down and, having her shoe in the stirrup, Miss Archer sailed, with her costly wrappings, into the mud and water; but, regaining her hands and feet at the moment Packenham arose, she scrambled out ahead of him just in season to escape being trodden beneath his hoofs. " There," she laughed, as she arose from the mud, "I've lost old Whitlock's shoe." But, to shorten a long story, they arrived at the Rock River without any further adventures, Miss Archer having ridden, incrusted in mud, from the little lake in the condition in which she emerged from her involuntary baptism, swam the river, and she was welcomed by her friends on the opposite shore. Mr. Dodson left their house the next day, traveled to his destination, and, after selling his mill property, returned for the lady, whom he had warned to be ready, that he might not be delayed. But upon his arrival she had made no preparation to return, and after her horse had been led to the door she suddenly concluded, at the solicita- tions of her friends, that she would not go. The suggestion of the persecuted Dodson that her father would expect her and require an explanation from him were of no avail, and he was obliged to leave without her. Miss Archer made her appearance some ten days after his arrival in Chicago, greatly to the relief of the Colonel and Capt. Dodson, the latter of whom had, until then, been treated with marked coldness since his arrival without her. This journey was, probably, the most romantic of the early ones across the country.
Capt. Dodson, the first of the early settlers now living in the county, still resides in the village of Geneva. Mrs. Dodson is also living. Miss Archer subsequently married a planter, and lives in one of the Southern States, and
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we are informed that Col. Archer, her father, now more than 80 years of age, was a member of the last Illinois Legislature.
The wonderful strides which have been made in forty years in the progress of all parts of the county connot be better appreciated than by observing that upon that memorable drive whole townships were passed without the appearance of a house, fence or single evidence of civilization, and there was not a railroad then in the entire State of Illinois. The absence of wood and water deterred, for several years, settlers from locating in Geneva Township east and west of the cluster of pioneers along the river. Particularly on the West Side, where a small prairie stretched away into the present Township of Blackberry, was this absence of woodland calculated to discourage Eastern men ; but before the close of the year 1839 the real value of this section was seen to be superior, in many re- spects, to any other in the township, and the land had been generally taken up. Its value has greatly increased since then, not merely from its being settled and cultivated, but from the disappearance of many of the sloughs, which for- merly rendered large tracts along Mill Creek worthless. This creek was reported by the Government Surveyors as a navigable stream for steamers-a statement too prodigiously absurd to require comment, and conclusive evidence to any one who has attempted to cross it, excepting by the regular highways, that the author of it had been "ditched " there. Among the earliest of the immigrants to perceive that the prairie land was worth taking up were a Mr. Cheever, on the place now known as the Lilly Farm; William Sykes, who set- tled about 1839 southwest of the village, upon the present Town place ; Lyman German, about 1837, on the East Side, upon land now owned by Messrs. Joy & Woolston, while John R. Baker was on the banks of the "stream navigable for steamers " previous to the sale of Government land. Scotto Clark, who came from Boston in 1837, and purchased from Wheeler, also Peter Sears, who were early settlers upon the East Side; Robert Lester, originally from the north of Ireland, later from Canada, settled in the same year upon the same side, having purchased of Julius Alexander, then residing upon the tract, and is living there still, while Eben Danford purchased the old Bird place, upon the opposite side, which is his residence to this day.
FIRST DEATH AND BIRTH.
Andrew Mills died in 1836, and was the first adult buried in the old village cemetery.
In 1835, the first birth in the township occurred, being in the family of Edward Trimble.
EARLY ROADS.
In these early times there were few routes of travel, but the whole country lay open to the tramp, and he could take his choice for a footpath. The high- way was bounded by the rising sun on the east and the setting sun on the west,
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instead of fences as now, but there were a few main paths from important points, which even then were followed with little variation. These were at first trails, the origin of which must be sought beyond the limits of history, amid the tra- dlitional lore of the Kickapoos or the Pottawattomies, the later occupants of the soil. They existed when the first white wanderer entered Kane County, and for aught that is known to the contrary, some of them were old when La Salle sailed down the Illinois River in the Winter of 1679-80. -
The most noted and doubtless the only one of these trails through Geneva extended from Chicago westward to Geneva village, past the present site of the cheese factory, south of the big spring, near Haight's old house, and thence on across the township to Galena. This trail was traveled by the Herringtons, in 1835, and by the earlier settlers, and a part of it at least was at a later date surveyed and regularly laid out, thus becoming the permanent thoroughfare.
The road from Geneva to St. Charles, on the West Side, was surveyed by Mark Fletcher, in 1838. It is now one of the most beautiful drives in the country, is graveled from St. Charles to Batavia, and is always good, whatever may be the condition of the highways in other parts of the country. No road in Northern Illinois traverses a more beautiful country or one in which wealth has been more generally expended upon every home. Scarcely a poor dwell- ing appears throughout the entire drive the grounds around nearly all are under excellent cultivation, while the same uninterrupted elegance and wealth continue to Aurora, a distance of eleven miles. The road follows the various curves of the river during almost the entire distance, and, seen with its ripples sparkling in a Summer's sun, through the occasional openings in the foliage, it recalls to the pleasure seeker the days when a deeper mantle of leaves over- hung its banks and no manufactories or mills blackened its wavelets.
SCHOOLS.
The first school in Geneva was taught in the Winter of 1835-36, by Mrs. Samuel Sterling, on the place now owned by E. Danford, north of the village. The school house was the Samuel Sterling residence, built of logs, and, unlike the other houses in the neighborhood, had a stone floor of the original limestone flagging, lying just as the last universal convulsion had left it. It stood on the river bank where the ledge lies but a short distance below the surface of the ground. Mrs. S. was hired by Mr. Herrington, and paid by subscriptions from the few settlers in the vicinity, and ruled over about a dozen pupils.
The next schools were located in the village, and will be noticed under the proper head.
After the school law went into operation, Geneva became intimately con- nected with Batavia, in the management of her public institutions of learning, and several of her districts lie partly in one township and partly in another.
There are now nine school districts in the two townships, all of which are supplied with houses and are generally under competent management.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
The estimated valuation of the school property in Geneva Township and village is about $30,000. In no one of the institutions indicative of an ad- vanced civilization has progress been more apparent than in the facilities for education in this and the adjoining townships.
Forty years ago, there were only two schools within an extent of a dozen miles up and down the river and directly westward to the vicinity of Dixon, and these two were in operation during only four or five months in the year.
COUNTY POOR HOUSE.
The county poor farm is situated on the East Side, and extends slightly be- yond the township line of Batavia. It was formerly owned by E. Lee, and the house, once occupied by his family as a dwelling, was fitted for the first poor house, but being found inconvenient for the purpose, both in size and structure, a substantial stone building was put up in 1872, at a cost of about $15,000. The farm occupies 180 acres.
CITY OF GENEVA.
As common, in townships containing county seats, the history of Geneva centers in the village of the same name, which lies two miles, by rail, from Batavia, and nearly the same distance from St. Charles. Its streets are laid out with more regularity than those of any other village or city in Kane County, and, though not noted for manufactures or the amount of business transacted in them, they are marked by elegant homes, the owners of which are-many of them-engaged in business in Chicago, and have never en- deavored to render the village a bustling, noisy place, but simply a quiet. suburban retreat-a
" Sweet auburn, loveliest village of the plain."
Its society is considered among the most cultivated and accomplished in the county, and several of its old families, as the Dodsons, Pattons, Herring- tons, Alexanders and others, have resided within its limits for many years and. remember the time when the village contained not a dozen dwellings. An old record of town plats in the Recorder's office shows that the place was surveyed May 8, 1837, by Mark W. Fletcher, County Surveyor, and that the proprie- tors were, then, James Herrington and Richard Hamilton. The original plat contained some 300 acres on the nearly level plain upon the West Side. To Daniel S. Haight, already mentioned, the honor of making the first
SETTLEMENT
is due. An authority of unimpeachable veracity* affirms that Haight was mak- ing improvements on the bank of the river in June, 1833, and another equally good informant states that early in the same month and year, Haight and * E. S. Town, Esq., of Batavia, who obtained his information from Payne.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
James Brown, who subsequently settled at Nelson's Grove, came on a pros- pecting tour to the banks of Fox River valley. The former was one of the most respectable of the Hoosier pioneers-is represented as a tall and well- formed man-honest, and not given to drunkenness. The early settlers always selected a position near some good spring as a site for building, and Haight's shanty of unhewn poles or small logs stood just west of where the cheese factory now stands, near one long distinguished from others in the vicinity as the "Big Springs." There is abundant proof that he resided there early in 1834, but whether he ever regarded Geneva as his permanent abode may be doubted, since in the Summer of that year he left and was absent in Chicago and Naperville several weeks, returning in the Fall and selling to James Her- rington in the Winter of 1834-5. He subsequently removed to Rockford, laid the foundation of the town on the east side of the river, lived and died there. The next house within the present village limits was put up by Arthur Akin, near Mc Wayne's spring. James Herrington came from Meadville, Pennsyl- vania, with his family, consisting of his wife, five boys and two girls, in May, 1833, and stopped in Chicago, where Mary, a third daughter, was born. The great metropolis of the West was then chiefly noted for its low groggeries, and Mrs. Herrington, wishing to educate her family under more moral influences, strongly objected to remaining. No civilization was, in her opinion, preferable to the type there found, and accordingly, in April, 1835, the family removed to the place purchased of Haight the previous Winter. This excellent lady (Mrs. Herrington) is still living in the village, at the age of seventy-eight, pos- sesses a remarkable memory concerning the settlement from 1835, and has been of great service in furnishing items of early history for this chapter. The Herrington residence was built further up the bank, west of Haight's little dwelling and just south of a solitary tree, now standing, which has since grown there. The building was, for a long time, the most ambitious structure to be found in a circuit of many miles, and was built of hewn logs, and on the plan of those so frequently described as "double log houses " in the History of Western Pennsylvania, where the Herrington family were prominent and where the name is still met with among the records of some of the early insti- tutions of Mercer County. A painting of the house is still in existence, in which it is represented as a long, homely structure, with two low stories, while three chimneys project two or three feet from the ridge of the roof and a low porch overhangs the five windows upon the east side. The dwelling was con- structed almost wholly of oak, but had a good white-ash floor and, butternut shingles. All the settlers, in 1836, and the years immediately following, found shelter and refreshments therein; there the first election and court in the county were held, and there it was decided what the name of the county seat should be. It was, in short, the first hotel in the village, and in many respects the most important house in the county. It has long been torn down and re- moved. Mrs. Herrington states that the first meal in their new house was
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
cooked and eaten upon a pile of logs, near the spring, which was doubtless a more agreeable place to dine than Haight's vacated shanty, which was con- verted into a store (the first in the place) in the same year, and furnished with a stock of goods by Mr. Herrington. L. M. Church was the first clerk who sold to the people of Geneva and vicinity, and was followed in the same store by David Dunham, who remained with Mr. Herrington until elected County Recorder. Indians were numerous, and encamped on the island just below. They were excellent customers, when they possessed any article of exchange, but most audacious thieves, and one of them, commonly known as "Indian Jim," after selling his horse for a drink of whisky, to Augustus Herrington *- now Solicitor for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad-returned the next night and stole the beast.
Nothing could surpass the river and its wild scenery then. Not an old settler speaks of it without becoming immediately enthusiastic. Hour after hour, in the calm days of Summer, the swarthy Pottawattomie fisherman might be seen in bis light canoe, erect as the spear of a single prong which he poised in his hand, as he glided over the quiet surface of the stream. A thousand fantastic forms appear on either bank as he floats along past the bubbling spring upon his right and the little emerald-crowned island rising like a water nymph on the left ; but his eyes are blinded to all but the finny swarms that revel in the transparent element below. Ten, fifteen, or even twenty feet are no security from his keen eye and unerring aim. and monsters which are never drawn from that river in the present degenerate days were then secured daily. If a single dam presented for a time obstructions to the streams of life which ascended from the Mississippi in the Spring, it was merely a temporary one, broken by every flood ; and the old settlers say that it was not unusual to ob- tain, in Fox River, fish weighing sixty or seventy pounds.
In 1836, a number of immigrants flocked to Geneva, and in the same year Kane County was organized, and named from Hon. Elias K. Kane, one of the first United States Senators from Illinois, upon its admission to the Union, in 1818.
Clybournville contested for the honor of being the county seat with Geneva, but all know the result. Geneva, or Herrington's Ford, as it was then, called, was obviously a more central point, and besides, it had a post office established the year previous, under the name of La Fox, with James Herrington as first Postmaster. " Daddy " Wilson carried the mail on horseback between Naper- ville and Geneva, and made the trip once in two weeks. That belonging to Geneva was carried in his pockets, and they were never weighed down. Sev- eral of the settlers, like those of Aurora, were anxious to have their village called Waubansie, but, as in the sister town, a name much more agreeable to the ears was chosen, at the suggestion of Dr. Dyer, formerly from Geneva, N. Y., and now living in Chicago.
United States District Attorney, under Buchanan.
/
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
During this same year, James Herrington erected a more convenient store- house in the village. Crawford Herrington, a brother of James, had settled, in the Summer of 1835, upon the claim taken by Arthur Akin, and his son, James, born carly in 1836, was probably the first child born in the village.
Margaret Herrington, a sister of Hon. James Herrington, and whose birth occurred November 3, 1836, was the first female child born in the place, and the first birth after the village was laid out.
During the same memorable year, N. B. Spaulding, living on the present Clark Wilder farm, in Aurora, came with his betrothed bride, Miss Angelina Atwater, to Geneva, and was married in the village. Their marriage license is said to have been the first granted in the county.
The first sermon in Geneva was preached during the same year, in James Herrington's house, by Rev. N. C. Clark. In that year, Logan Ross settled in the village, and the clink of the anvil was first heard there. Running horses, foot-racing, wrestling and fighting were at that time the principal amusements of the place, and in all the athletic sports Ross was known far and wide as the champion.
The year 1837 witnessed the building of the first court house, a small wooden edifice, used until the erection of the stone building, still standing upon the original site, but vacant since the completion of the magnificent structure commenced in 1856, and now occupied for the dispensation of justice. The lower story is used as a jail.
The second building was commenced in 1843, and completed in 1844, and cost the county only the small sum of about $800, since the citizens generally assisted in labor and by furnishing materials ; but the house now occupied has cost the county not less than $125,000. Wm. Derby was the contractor. Twelve sessions-three of the Circuit and nine of the County Court-are held therein yearly.
The year 1837 is likewise memorable as the year of the arrival in the vil- lage of a colony, consisting of Caleb A. Buckingham, Charles Patten and Scotto Clark, from Boston, with Abram Clark, brother to the latter, and his wife, from Westminster, Vt., who left the former place on the 13th of September, by way of the canal to Buffalo, and thence by steamer to Chicago, arriving on Fox River, at Geneva, upon the 1st day of October. All settled within the present limits of the village, Scotto Clark building just north of where Mr. Belden now lives, and his brother and family living in the same dwelling, and keeping house for him ; while Buckingham opened the first law office in the place, and practiced with great success for a time, but died in Chicago in 1840, before attaining the eminence to which his brilliant talents would have promoted him but for his un- timely decease. .
In the Winter of 1837-8, Scotto Clark and Charles Patten returned East. the latter for a stock of merchandise, which, upon his return, in the following May, he placed in a small store upon the corner where the block which he now
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occupies has since been raised. One Isaac Claypool then had a small stock of goods in the village, but remained in business but a short time.
Among Geneva's prominent men were Dr. Henry Madden, afterward widely known in the county and State. Dr. Henry A. Miller, who married a daughter of Judge Wilson, of Batavia, was the first resident physician in Geneva, and had a wide practice throughout Kane County. At the time of Patten's arrival, Mark Daniels, one of the early purchastrs, was living in the place ; also, Hendrick Miller, who built in the village the first distillery on Fox River. Julius Alex- ander, from Southern Illinois, located within the present corporation limits, in July, 1837, upon the East Side, where he built a blacksmith shop the same year.
There were several arrivals in 1838, among them John Chambers, from Tompkins County, N. Y., and Peter Sears, who was part owner of the claim purchased by Scotto Clark, on the East Side, and came from Boston with the family of the latter.
About the same time, the first bridge was constructed at Herrington's Ford, by Gilbert & Sterling, but was swept away before completion. Several built since then have met the same fate, and one, erected in 1857, at a cost of $22,- 000, was removed to make way for the elegant iron structure, 522 feet long, built in the Winter of 1868-9; cost, $16,000. The first dam was built early in 1837, and was immediately followed by a saw-mill, on the East Side, which Mr. James Herrington referred to in a communication to the Chicago Demo- crat, in May of that year, as "nearly completed." Sterling, Madden & Dan- iels were the builders. In 1844, Howard Brothers built the first grist-mill, upon the opposite bank.
In 1839, the village lost by the death of James Herrington, one of its most energetic and able business men, and as has been seen, one of its earliest settlers.
SCHOOLS.
The first building in the village used exclusively for school purposes was the wing of the present elegant stone house, and was built upon the same site in 1855. Later, a brick building was put up upon the East Side. Previous to 1873, each side was a part of a separate district, but in that year the build- ing upon the West Side was erected, at an expense of $25,000, the two districts were consolidated, and the old brick building has since been used as a primary department. Both schools are now under the efficient management of Mr. C. E. Mann. the County Superintendent of Schools and one of the most success- ful teachers in the State. The large school contains five departments. Aver- age attendance on both sides, 234; total enrollment, 335.
CHURCHES.
Methodist Episcopal .- In 1837, Hiram G. Warner, a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, preached to a small congregation in Geneva in the old court house. In the following year, Revs. Wilson and Gaddis
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visited the town, and a class was formed consisting of three members living in the present limits of the village, whose names were Alison Abbott, Julius Alexander and Marietta Warner, and for some time services were held in the tavern owned by one Hendrick Miller and kept by James Hotchkiss. The class was at length added to the St. Charles Circuit, embracing Aurora, Batavia and St. Charles. In 1844, the first measures toward building a house of worship were taken by Rev. E. C. Springer. A lot was procured from the county, deeded to the Trustees in 1850 for one dollar, and in the same year a building was put up, which was occupied for twenty years, when, in 1870, a larger and more convenient house was first thought of. In the following year, the matter received general attention from the members ; in 1872, the ground was broken for the foundation, and before the end of the year services were held in the new building, which was not finished, however, until 1874. It is a stone structure, and by far the finest church in the place. Present membership, 110.
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